The phone shuddered in my shirt pocket and rang with a sense of urgency. I knew it was Mother and muted the call. The bus reached the final destination. The phone shuddered again. "I have reached. Don't keep calling me. I will call you later in the night." The man beside me looked at me with curious eyes. "My mother, sir," I said. "She wants to keep track of my every movement." 

In the fading light, I sat on the bench of a tea shop, ordered a cup of tea and kept my backpack next to me. A Sadhu with matted hair and a monkey on a leash approached the tea shop and sat on the bench opposite mine. The Sadhu tugged the leash, and the monkey jumped and sat beside him. The Sadhu got a banana from his cloth bag, peeled it and gave it to the monkey. The monkey took a bite of the banana and hit the Sadhu on his thigh. He took another bite and again hit him on his thigh. 

The Sadhu looked at my puzzled expression and said, "This monkey is blind, and I adopted it. I keep it on a leash. When he sat beside me now, he could not feel the tension of the leash. He hit me to make sure I was still with him."

The phone rang again. It was Mother.