If you have the right skills, you can meet some very peculiar employer needs. In India, for example, people who can imitate macaque monkeys’ enemies are currently in demand.
Sean McLain and Aditi Malhotra sent a report to the Wall Street Journal about Mahesh Nath. His “assignment last week: Imitating monkey hoots and barks to scare other primates away from the bungalow of a member of parliament. …
“The calls mimic the warning noises of a territorial alpha-male gray langur monkey — a natural enemy of the smaller macaque monkey that has infested the leafy heart of New Delhi.
“Mr. Nath, a slightly built 40-year-old with a broken arm, calls himself a ‘monkey wallah,’ a South Asian term that loosely translates to ‘monkey man.’ He is part of a team of 40 men hired by municipal authorities to shoo pesky macaques away from prominent places where they don’t belong.
“ ‘It’s not a bad way to earn my bread and butter, and it is all I’ve got to look after my three daughters,’ says Mr. Nath…
“Macaques are a real nuisance. They uproot vegetables, strip fruit trees bare, overturn garbage cans and raid garden parties. …
“Until last summer, the capital’s streets were patrolled by actual langurs. Monkey wallahs and their male primate partners manned posh neighborhoods … But the Indian government decided a year ago to enforce a rule against keeping langurs, which are protected under India’s wildlife law, in captivity.
“Without their langur partners, many monkey men swung into other professions. Those like Mr. Nath, who stuck with it, had to perfect their langur impersonations and come up with other tactics. …
“The biggest threat Mr. Nath faces, other than the monkey horde, is a sore throat from all the grunting. He gargles with a traditional remedy of alum and water to avoid losing his voice. I have to take care of my throat, it’s critical to my job,’ he says.”
More here.
Photo: Junho Kim
Mahesh Nath is a ‘monkey wallah,’ a South Asian term that loosely translates to ‘monkey man.’
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