A Jungle Fable Retold

It was a point in time when the time as such made no sense. All that mattered was day and night. The day began with the sunrise and ended with sunset when the night began. The jungle was vast and was ruled by the Lion King with a very notable mane. He was all-powerful. Some animals didn’t mind the power being centred on one animal. But there are others who minded it. But no one had the courage to face the lion. A time came when the jungle raj became too oppressive. It was at one such time a group of gathered animals gathered for a meeting. The clever fox told them a Panchatantra tale of the clever rabbit and how it overpowered the lion. We just need to find a clever rabbit among ourselves. Then achche din would come, the fox concluded. Unknown to the animals in the meeting there was a spy and the word reached the Lion king. It unleashed the all-powerful jungle agency for investigation (JAI in short). The jungle was reverberating with the war cries of JAI. Animals were terrorized. JAI was particularly looking for rabbits. All rabbits counted cleverly or not. They were able to identify the rabbits by the fur coat they had. But rabbits were no less smart. They had an underground network of burrows which they used to keep themselves from glare. Occasionally they left some old and sick rabbits that could be captured by the JAI brigade. JAI although not happy could at least report some capture and numbers to their king.

And then the rains came. The ponds and lakes were filled with water. The river started flowing. It was time for a mela to thank the rain gods. King came with his entourage and all the animals who were awed by the King came too. They were caught unawares by an infectious virus that had been let loose among them. The gathering led to a pandemic and many animals started becoming sick and some died too. The rabbits were safe in their burrows. They felt the time has come for an uprising. They started a whispering campaign among animals. They met with animals who had lost someone or others to the pandemic. They expressed sympathy and also mentioned that the King should have known better. The bereaved animals and their family agreed readily to the argument put forth by rabbits. The word was spreading faster than the pandemic now. JAI themselves had lost ground because some of their foot soldiers too succumbed to the pandemic. The pandemic had taken the bulls by their horns so to speak. Their war cry became quite mooted now. The king could sense all this and retreated to his favourite cave to ponder over the situation. He sensed the change in the circumstances. There was once a time when a mere roar would do and the animals pissed out of fear. Now he found it difficult to roar and was scared to roar too. What if the animals didn’t care anymore? But the elephants cared and donated a trunkload of wealth to the fund called the Care for Animal Relief Everywhere (CARE) set up by his majesty.

But it wasn’t much of a relief to the king. He started wondering if his deputy was also part of the whispering campaign that was going around. He was the most to gain by my fall through the Lion.

He then decided to launch a loud campaign to counter the whispers. He called the bulls that could bellow quite loudly. He gave them fodder to chew so that they could bellow loudly enough for the echoes to reverberate in the jungle. So, it became a battle of the bulls vs rabbits. In the day's bellows of the bulls reverberated in the jungle but the nights belonged to the rabbit whisperers. The wild media dogs who used to keep a safe distance from the lions began howling and created chaos along with the bellows.

It was during such time when the wise old owl (reputed to be as sharp as a modern Harvard alumnus) suggested change in the cabinet of the king. He suggested the bear take charge as the bear knew all about necessities in the tough times. Hyenas drooled with anticipation. They always liked conflicts when killings would keep them well fed. Pandemic has put an end to intra-animal conflicts. Animals that worshipped the Easterly winds and those who tied up their manes were doing social work and serving others well in the pandemic. But the pandemic was taking its toll. The river was found with bodies of dead animals and the wild media dogs howled all at once. The jungle cats were out of their sleeping bags disturbed by the howling in the media.

The beauty of this Panchatantra fable lies in the fact it leaves to the readers to take the fable to its conclusion depending on readers’ own considerations. But the story ends with a few questions. Does the lion king prevail over the pandemic? Does the bear reign over the bulls in the hustle? Does the rabbit burrow a leaf from the old tale and prevail over the king?