Bulls In The Jungle

 

I was listening to the song Bungle in the Jungle by Jethro Tull when the inspiration flashed. But this story is not a cock but a Bulls’ story. The story was an unusual one in that the jungle got ruled by the two Bulls for some time now. One was the Nandi Bull which learnt yoga and meditation from the Adi Yogi itself. The other one was a bulldozer. Of course, there were plenty of cows that got bred in the jungle, which became a problem as we shortly are going to see. The Nandi Bull called for a meeting of all animals since he wanted to share his maan ki baat and hear the maan ki baat of assembled animals. He told as much when he began the meeting saying ‘Mitron, we have accomplished much. The jungle has become one jungle at last. We have managed to get rid of the weed congress grass but being stubborn it has been seen to be making a come back in some stages. Soon we are going to build a tall memorial for our Monkey god that it will be visible from the other universe too. Yet I understand there is some unrest among the animals. I want to hear about it. Let us then collectively resolve all our problems.” The animals got surprised as the Nandi bull was speaking a democratic language. They got on their guard immediately.

Leopard from its comfort zone perched on the tree growled and said “food chain has been disturbed by the arrival of too many cows. Other herbivores now have to compete for food with the cows. Deers have become dearer. We also know cow was not consumed nowadays in deference to the wishes of your majesty.” The leopard was spot on and the animals gave a standing ovation. The owl which has wisened further with a Harvard degree hooted for the leopard and said “forest means diversity was its essence; this monoculture of cows was detrimental to the forest diversity; the food chain has got disturbed now. Let us not copy humans” he concluded.

The bats hanging upside down from the nearby trees batted for both the owl and the leopard. “We too are finding it difficult to feed on diversity of insects. It had got to do with disturbance in the food chain. “

“That was a cover drive for four” a rat squeaked in its voice.

The bees got buzzing now. We find only oranges among the fruits and lotuses among the flowers. We are missing the multi-floral honey that kept us buzzing all day like the social media. Nowadays it feels like the internet shut down.

Ravens crowed “ we are all the time ravenous but cannot find anything to scavenge. We too avoid cow beef because of the ban.”

The industrious ant representative said except for the jumbani ant that lives in “anthillia” growth has eluded us. We just about manage our bare necessities, they said.

Bears agreed and they made an unbearable spectacle with their bones sticking out.

The rat said “this was all becoming a raucous our underworld is better” and scurried into their burrow.

Eagles flying high as always swooped down and perched on a tall palm and screamed “we have the bird’s eye view and we travel to far jungles. Growth has become the casualty in the forest they said. We too rarely find food in these parts.”

The wise motherly elephant stood up and the forest fell in a hush. She said “I have lived many decades. Earlier we could roam around many forests not only here. Now there are too many barriers. We have become like humans putting up restrictions for free movement. We miss the sweetness of the jack fruits; we have stopped going bananas; there is a bungle in the jungle” she trumpeted.

Nandi Bull felt it was time to retreat as the discussions were going awry. He said the meeting had given him a lot of cuds to chew. He would meditate upon this and come up with a clear vision in 2020. The bulls left.

As it was the festive season of winter the animals began their chorus

“jungle bulls, jungle bulls bellowing all the way, Santa cows are coming along mooing by the way.”