Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Shima Khala and the She-Monkey

The dog was not my Great Aunt Shima's only pet. She had her own bandar-nee, or monkey (bandar is urdu for monkey and nee at the end of a word denotes that it is a female). Amazingly, the monkey was kept, not at the village house, but in her upscale city house in Lahore (in the neighborhood known as Model Town, considered very exclusive by Lahori standards).

The monkey was given to her by some friends/clients who perhaps bred them (or somehow had an extra monkey on hand). Mahboob, her adopted-son, who told me about the monkey, never got to see it for himself, but heard about it when he accompanied Shima Khala to Model Town (she was then in the process of moving from the city to the village house, which she had just built).

One more way in which my Great Aunt Shima was a rather amazing woman!

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