Marrying Monkeys in India is Illegal

This scientist has been on vacation near Houston, TX during the past week.  And while I learned some very cool things about where NASA is headed you'll have to look back for that update.

In the meantime, I am posting something I find very amusing... monkey marriage.

Ramesh and Raju (Danish Siddiqui / Reuters)

This story showed up in my RSS feed for "monkey reproduction research" on Friday, "Star-crossed simian lovers buck taboos, secretly marry in Indian ceremony".  I was wondering, as I am sure you are, what this could possibly to do with reproduction or research.  So I clicked on it.  Let me say that is has nothing to do with either.  However, here's my brief synopsis.

This love story takes place near the village Banentha in Rajasthan, India.  The above picture is Ramesh Saini, a rickshaw driver, embracing his pet monkey named Raju, who Ramesh calls his "son".  Apparently Raju and Chinki, a female monkey, "fell in love" and Ramesh wanted to "enjoy the feelings of a son's wedding".  As a result, a wedding was planned in the village of Talwas, deep in the forests of Rajasthan.  This was apparently something rejoiced by the villagers and Ramesh was expecting more than 2,000 people

Since Raju, the male monkey, was very famous, the word about the wedding traveled quickly and also into the State Forest Ranger's office.  Bhavar Singh Kaviya, a forest ranger, is quoted "It's illegal to marry a monkey. Anyone found doing that or attending the marriage ceremony will be arrested."

Pre-wedding festivities in Talwas (Danish Siddiqui / Reuters)

In response, 200 armed guards showed up in Talwas on the day of the wedding only to find the large group of people waiting for the wedding, but no monkeys.  Where'd the monkeys go you ask?  Ramesh is said to have taken the monkeys deep into the forest away from Talwas to complete the wedding ceremony away from the officials.  Officials later found Chinki, the female monkey and Raju's wife, tied to a tree with the vermilion mark on her forehead.  The vermilion or bindi, is used to signify a married Hindu woman (similar to the wedding ring of western cultures).  In the end, both monkeys were captured and transferred to a nearby forest.

Indian Forest Ranger with Chinki found tied to a tree (Danish Siddiqui / Reuters)

Ramesh however was quoted saying while running through a crowd to avoid being caught by officials, "I know my son Raju, with his wife Chinki, will come back home, and I will have a big reception for them."

Give it a read, it gives some insights into Indian culture beyond what we might know about Bollywood. Scientific?  Not really.  Entertaining?  You tell me.