Tale of the Twisted Rear View Mirror

This is a tale of suspense and strange outcomes - also highlighting the way the human mind works.

I park my two wheeler, which is an Activa, inside our home in the garden area. It has been there unused for a number of days since the Kids’ school was on summer break. The garden is our private area but given the way the system here works the University staff do come in unannounced - they come for utility meter readings, or for cleaning the roof, or other repair tasks. They pass through the front area of the garden for these purposes. There are two localites who seem to love to ‘steal’ flowers from our nice hibiscus tree near the gate - they haven’t in our knowledge crossed into the garden to do it - and only plucked flowers from outside the compound wall. However when we had shifted newly into this house there was a person who boldly walked in in our presence to pluck some flowers. Only after some stern warning did he stop. We also have our household help who helps clean the garden once in a while. These are all the characters involved in work in and around the house. 

One day I noticed one of the rear view mirrors (there are two) of the scooter twisted and loose. I was surprised and shocked. Immediately we (the family) started discussing who might be doing it and why. I thought that maybe the household help was the one, since she would find the scooter an unwanted obstacle in her efforts to clean the garden and she might be trying to move it holding the mirror. Further Sherlocking took us to consider the university labourers as potentially fiddling with the mirror as they walk in and out of our house. Not satisfied with that, we went on to think of the flower ‘stealing’ men, maybe they started entering the grade?!! I wondered if some of the naughty kids (including my own possibly) were the ones playing around. 

I tightened the mirror back to its original position and observed it for a while. Again after a week or two the mirror was back to its twisted form. It was irritating by now. 

To rule out the first suspect, I moved the scooter out to a corner of the garden and also informed the maid to not touch it. Things looked fine for a while, but one fine day it again was back in its contorted form. We were losing it, unsure of who could be the actual culprit behind this. We gave up, and only kept tightening the mirror back and looking helpless.,. 

One day there was a strange incident that my family was witness to. Given that we are in a largely forest area, there are occasional monkey families that visit for the fruits and leaves of the trees in the area. That day one particular monkey was seen to be sitting on a scooter of a neighbor’s visitor and peering into its mirror. While they watched, the monkey played with the mirror and finally got it freed. It took it along and climbed up a tree and sat looking at its beauty in the mirror. The mirror slipped from its hands, but the narcissist in it made it come down to the ground and take it back up for its pleasure filled escapade. (The scooter till date is without one mirror!!). Aha, so that anecdote made us think that possibly its these monkeys monkeying around with our scooter too. 

But we did not have solid evidence - till one day my younger son while walking back from school spotted one of those monkeys happily seated on our scooter and trying hard to free it for its needs. Due to his presence the monkey abandoned this attempt. 

Mystery finally solved: no humans were involved and it turned out to be some narcissistic monkeys at play. I am yet to get the mirror properly fixed, but I have ensured that I have made it difficult for it to be successful in the future.

I was amazed at how the human mind worked in this whole episode - jumping from person to person as the possible suspect and also imagining the reason as to why they may be doing it. Also being angry in the process with the imaginary criminal. All the while it happened to be a harmless animal trying to have some fun in its life! A learning for a professor of organizational behaviour!!! :)