CHENNAI: Practically every student and parent who came to Anna University on Monday was thankful for the additional toilets and shade-giving enclosure constructed for the counselling period. If at all there was any complaint, it was because they had to share their drinking water source with the many monkeys that decided to swing by.
Drinking water, unlike most other institutes, is provided in large black ‘Sintex’ tanks - installed at various places with steel tumblers chained to its base. Unfortunately, the perfectly simple system failed to draw drinkers, when several monkeys began to utilise them through the afternoon. “After lunch when I went to the tank to get a drink, I had tilted my head and was raising the tumbler when I spotted it,” relates Rani, whose daughter was awaiting her call-up. “The monkey was looking at me for a bit and then put its head in and began to drink the water,” she adds.
Several others reported similar monkey business at other such tanks. Result? It was a great day for all the stalls who sold packaged water bottles. When contacted, a TNEA official said that the water was clean and the tanks were “covered”.