The Visit

Our herd was the largest in Kerala; it consisted of my amma (mother), my appa (father), my tata (grandfather), my pati (grandmother) and all the other relatives and friends from Appa's side. Amma was an orphan, pati told me that her parents were shot by hunters when she was young and had no family except for us. Whenever I ask amma about it she always ignores the question and repeats only one thing "humans are dangerous and never to trust one". Oh, I am so sorry! I completely forgot to introduce myself, my name is Appu and I am one of the youngest elephants of my Appa's herd.

Most of my childhood was spent with my pati and Leela- my best friend. My pati always used to tell us stories of Lord Ganesha and how he rode Mushaka - the mouse, I never really used to believe her as to how could a mouse lift an elephant right? Leela and I used to go to the lake to take bathe, we would often have a race and I would always lose to her, not that I was slow or anything but she was too fast. While bathing we used to see a lot of humans. They would just mind their own business and act normal only, some would even come near us and bow down. Everything was going great until the FIRE.

Leela and I were returning from the lake and suddenly the weather changed. There was a big storm and lightning everywhere. The lightning hit the trees and inflicted fire on the whole forest. The fire spread and the whole jungle burned down. Leela and I escaped by entering the ancient temple cave but we did get a few burns. After the fire went off we rushed to our herd’s resting place and saw nothing but burnt bodies of all our relatives and friends. We couldn’t believe our own eyes and really broke down and suddenly we heard a whisper coming from behind the tree. It was pati, she was hurt and was in a very bad state, the only thing she said was “Appu, you are a very strong elephant but you are very naïve...never trust anyone and Leela, always take care of him...” She took her last breath and just went away to god. Leela and I immediately left the forest area and headed north.

Thirty years later

Appu – But why can’t we go back, after all, Medha should know where her parents grew up.

Leela – There is no need to go to that place, we are quite happy here Appu, why do you want to return to that place...It consists of so many bad memories.

Appu – Leela...what happened was nobodies mistake...It was an act of god and secondly, it is our home and now after so long, can we at least make a visit...come on...it’s been 30 years.

Leela – Ok, but only a visit alright...we are going to be back the very next day.

Leela and I both agreed on visiting our old home again. I was really excited as I would get to see my old home. Leela would not accept it but she was also very excited. It took us 4 days to reach our home. Everything felt very new, it wasn’t exactly as we left it to be. The humans had completely covered almost half of the forest with their cropping land. They weren’t as pleasant and respectful as they used to be, two or three of them even threw rocks at us. We were startled and headed back into the forest area. Leela immediately said, “We have to go back...humans have changed...they are not the same...this place is not the same”.

I said “Some of them might have Leela but we can’t really go back without visiting the lake right” Leela turned red and shouted at the top of her voice “Are you mad!! We got stones thrown at us...god forbid if it would have hit Medha...could you have really forgiven yourself Appu”. I agreed to her and we were on the way heading back that I saw a ball of fire heading towards us. We faced the same death that our family had faced thirty years back, the only difference being that god had nothing to do with it this time...

We worship them in the form of idols but do not give them respect in the real world

WHAT A PITY