The Peacock Picture on the wall

The Story of the Peacock Picture on our wall
Staying at Home in this lockdown period, I was wondering what to do to keep myself occupied. I wondered if I could attempt creating some handicraft. I did not know what to try. As I went around the house searching for ideas, I suddenly spotted a round wooden frame with a picture of a peacock on it. This frame with picture was on the walls of our house for more than 40 years. I recollected the story behind this picture which my mother had told me once.
It was the year 1976.
My father was working in Mines. Our house was D-46, Rajendra Prasad Road, (now Mahatma Gandhi Road) Block-25 (the stretch between 8 Road Junction and Guest House). Our house was diagonally opposite to INTUC office. Our house location was very comfortable for us then. Kasthuri Maligai and Cluny school were just behind our house. Amaravathy Theatre and Central Bus Stand were nearby. Only Big (Periya) Hospital and Main Bazaar were far. But we used to have many dispensaries and we used to go to these dispensaries for a PP4 injection when we had ordinary fever or headaches.
But we had one big problem in that location. MONKEYS. There were two big mango trees and one tamarind tree in our house. A group of monkeys used to come there often and create havoc. They were a menace to all the residents of the area. They used to sometimes make their way into houses through open doors and windows in search of something to eat. In fact, they were more than a nuisance and sometimes very daring too. Some big, grown-up monkeys would not go away easily unless they got something from the house. This monkey problem was the only problem at our house.
My father had a friend who worked with him. The friend hailed from Bangalore. As we all know, in those days, Bangalore, like Chennai, was a big city. Once, when my father’s friend was going to Bangalore, my father asked him to buy something from there for around 10-20 rupees. When my father’s friend returned from Bangalore, my father was eager to know what he bought. It turned out that he got a circular, lovely mirror which could be placed on a wall. My father was happy and immediately hung it on the wall. It looked attractive and presented a rich look to our hall.
In those days, there used to be a visiting cloth trader then who used to get saris and cloth materials from Venkatagiri (near Nellore in AP) and go around to many houses (he had some regular customers) to sell them. Venkatagiri saris were popular and he used to get good quality saris which sold well.
One day, my father had gone to work and we the children (my sister and me) had gone to school. My mother was alone at home and this Cloth Trader from Venkatagiri came there with his wares by cycle. Immediately, two to three women from neighboring houses also joined my mother in having a look at these saris. The Cloth Trader had two big bundles of saris with him. He opened one bundle and was displaying the saris to these ladies when there was a big sound in the courtyard. My mother rushed to look and saw that four monkeys were there, with a bucket of water having been knocked over by them. She tried to shoo them away, but they did not move. My mother had a big stick nearby to deal with these situations. She took the stick and banged it on an open door to make a sound. Hearing the sound, while three monkeys dashed up the wall of the courtyard and jumped on to a tree, one monkey darted into the hall through a open window.
The cloth trader and the other ladies saw this monkey coming in and started shouting. The Monkey stood, looked at them and made a snarling sound, crouching as if to pounce on them. The ladies shouted and went out of the house while the trader who sensed danger, hurriedly bundled up the saris, took both the bundles and ran out to the road to his cycle. The monkey was all alone in the Hall and it looked around the room. Meanwhile my mother came into the hall with stick in hand. The monkey saw this and tried to escape through an open window. As it was about to get out, it caught sight of another monkey staring back at it. The monkey was momentarily stunned and flung its paw at the other monkey, trying to hit it. Maybe it did not realise then that it was a mirror and what it was seeing was its own reflection. It was the mirror got from Bangalore. As the monkey hit out at it, the mirror cracked and broke into two pieces while the scared monkey squeezed itself through the window and ran away.
My mother was totally taken aback by the turn of events and she stared at the broken mirror in dismay.
My father came back after his First Shift in the afternoon. My mother explained what happened in the morning as he stared at the broken mirror heartbroken. There was nothing to do now. The mirror was actually mounted on a circular wooden frame and my father felt that another mirror of the same quality would not be available here in Neyveli. So the wooden circular frame was kept in a shelf for many days.
One Sunday, sitting at home not knowing what to do, my father took the wooden frame and drew a pencil sketch of a peacock on it. When my mother saw it, she got an idea. She took the wooden frame and coloured the pencil sketch of the peacock. Then she took sparkling tiny decorative pieces and pasted them around, giving the peacock a bright look. My father and mother were proud of their accomplishment.
And thus this peacock picture on the circular wooden frame has been on our wall for around 45 years now. It came into existence because of the reckless act of a monkey but thanks to it, we have our lovely peacock, designed by Mom and Dad.