Shashi Tharoor’s encounter with monkey goes viral, MP shares pictures of his ‘extraordinary experience’

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor received an unusual guest on Wednesday morning who “parked himself” on his lap, shared his bananas and proceeded to give him a hug. The MP took to X to share photos of this “extraordinary encounter” with a monkey sharing photos of the primate perched on his lap, enjoying the morning sun. 

In the photos, Tharoor was seen reading his newspaper as the monkey peeled a banana sitting on his lap. The MP in his post wrote, “Had an extraordinary experience today. While I was sitting in the garden, reading my morning newspapers, a monkey wandered in, headed straight for me and parked himself on my lap. He hungrily ate a couple of bananas we offered him, hugged me and proceeded to rest his head on my chest and dozed off. I gently began to get up, he leapt off and loped away.” 

However, in another post, Tharoor shared that he was initially a bit concerned about the risk of a monkey bite as it could have led to him needing rabies shots, but he calmed himself and welcomed the monkey’s presence as “non-threatening”. 

“I am gratified that my faith was borne out and our encounter was entirely peaceful and gentle,” the Congress leader remarked. 

What did netizens have to say?

Social media users in the comment section showered love over the post writing, “When even the wildlife trusts Dr Shashi Tharoor's calm demeanor! Magic happens always when Dr Tharoor is around!”

One commented, “That's an amazing picture. Never seen anything like that”, while another opined, “That's really very sweet. One usually hears of more problematic encounters with urban monkeys.”

Tharoor represents Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram parliamentary constituency in the Lok Sabha.