Monkey Business

Monkey Business
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

I was asked to shoot monkey for my assignment on the cultural aspect of Pakistan. Well, now-a-days, monkeys have gone out of business as more and more people become poor due to economic stagnation and lack of government will power. Monkeys, it appears, will go back to the wild while their handlers will do something else to earn their sort-of-a-cruel earning. But that's not true for this Punjabi handler, who has been at the Sea View since last 35 years.

I am not sure what others say about all this monkey show but this is cruel and positively banned in many Western countries. And you can see why. These handlers buy monkeys young (this one was 3 years old and not very co-operative) from Islamabad / Pindi, where they can be found in the jungles at Margalla hills for Rs.5000 (un-trained). Then these monkeys are hit with the stick day and night and kept partially hungry so that they may learn their trick. While I was photographing this monkey walla and his monkey the poor creature got a lot of spanking on his head and hands due to which I had to cut short this show. I paid him Rs.150 and I am not sure whether I did the right thing or not.