The Monkey Man Cometh

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In between favorites like WWII documentaries, Modern Marvels, and Gangland, the History channel occasionally dabbles in supernatural themed programming. Normally, shows like Monster Quest make me change the channel about as fast as Designing Women. This time however, History will be taking on one of the more colorful incidents of desi-themed hysteria in recent times – no, not Sanjaya but close, the New Delhi Monkey Man –

Engrained in the history and mythology of India are tales of a ferocious creature, half-man, half-ape. It has been dubbed the monkey-man and headlines across the world have told of the vicious nocturnal attacks that occurred in India’s capital, New Delhi. The city’s population was gripped with fear of a violent creature described by eyewitnesses as having sharp claws, fangs and dark hair. After three people died and dozens were hospitalized fleeing the creature, 3,000 police officers were tasked with capturing the animal, but came up empty handed…

Wednesday, June 10 09:00 PM
Thursday, June 11 01:00 AM
Sunday, June 14 02:00 PM

Should be interesting… Razib pointed out the wikipedia entry for the Monkey Man including some tragic cases of mistaken identity –

A four foot tall wandering Hindu sadhu was beaten up by an angry mob who mistook him for the Monkey Man.

On May 18, a van driver was set upon and sustained multiple fractures in another case of mistaken identification as Monkey

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p>To prevent future cases of this ilk, Delhi Police have provided this helpful sketch so you can ID the real Monkey Man should you ever run into him –

The second mugshot is particularly fierce.

19 thoughts on “The Monkey Man Cometh”

  1. After three people died and dozens were hospitalized fleeing the creature, 3,000 police officers were tasked with capturing the animal

    That’s disturbing–why couldn’t Delhi muster as many police to protect Sikhs from Congress-party thugs in ’84?

  3. Earlier this year I saw a movie that featured the ND Monkey man in the plot – Delhi 6. I wasn’t sure if it was based on a real monkey/creature-scare at the time.

  5. That’s disturbing–why couldn’t Delhi muster as many police to protect Sikhs from Congress-party thugs in ’84?

    so modi apologists would have a tu quoque excuse.

  9. As pointed by pavani, here’s the vid to the song on the monkey man in Delhi 6. Something for everyone – music by AR Rahman, a fat arse hipster, a stuntman doing parkour in chandni chowk, a desi valley-gurl, desi-rap.

  12. Back in 2003, I was on call in a casualty in a central Delhi hospital and attended to an alleged victim of the monkey man. The man had abrasions and superficial lacerations over his arms and trunk, and a few scratches on his face, nothing that required sutures. His breath smelled of alcohol, though he wasn’t obviously intoxicated. His story was that he was sleeping on the roof when he was attacked by a short furry creature with glowing red eyes. He claimed that when he started screaming, the creature jumped about 20 feet to the neighbouring rooftop. We thought that his story was bizarre, and suggested that he might have had a fight with his wife in a drunken state, or perhaps had been attacked by a real monkey. He was mildly offended, and said darkly “hans lo saheb, jab aap pe beetegi, tab pata chalega”. I too slept on the rooftop around that time, but my assailants, and the cause of my scratches were mainly mosquitoes.

  13. Kala Bander on the History channel — this is going to be interesting!

    (I hope, probably in vain, that they will use ARR’s song from Delhi-6 as a background music for this show…)

  16. True comment re Sikhs Monkey Man? U kiddin, sounds like a normal monkey, maybe drunk and angry..or with 28 days later Rage..

  18. The Delhiite Punjabis must have seen their image in the mirror and terrified of it. W00t, a neanderthal? Not a white man?