Simba - A Caged Lion

I am Simba, a caged lion in a circus, living in captivity for years. Every day I wake up from a recurring dream that I have successfully returned to my home - my beautiful jungle. If I go on to tell about my home, jungle is more than an experience of heaven; mesmerising tall trees, the smell of grass, the taste of water in lakes, the feel of the sunlight, the chirping sounds of birds and the most pleasant feeling of roaming around free like a king.

Alas!! I wake up to find myself in a small, near dark and cold cage in a circus, with limited space for me to even roam around. Don’t I deserve the life I wish to live? Humans call me the most ferocious animal but here I feel lonely and depressed. I am sick and no warmth of being with my family. Then I realized that the worst part of being a wild species animal is that no one ever asks if you are okay. But my dear friend, I also have family, friends and emotions.

See the game of the destiny, I was born to rule the jungle but I had spent my entire life in circus and my daily routine involves training, sometimes beating from the trainer and performances in front of a large crowd. Sometimes the loud noises of people traumatise me. The days went on like this for years.

One day I saw few, very graceful, people coming to our circus and they were inspecting the entire place. I wondered whether they would understand our sorrow and then a miracle happened, it was decided that we all were to be set free and returned to the jungle. The feeling of returning home is wonderful even though when we get home, home is still the same but something changes in our minds with the warmth felt at home and that changes everything.

Finally, the day had come, I felt sunlight after a long time and the breeze was very soothing. The preparations were in full swing, all animals were taken out of their existing cages, were tagged with some numbers, put in different vehicles to go back to jungle. Finally, we set off for the journey.

A thought was lingering in my mind that going back to jungle was my dream to die for.

We were finally set free and I was on my way to explore the jungle and suddenly heard some noises of hunters and within a few seconds, a bullet hit me. What has been these so-called inventions of humans – the gun which is used to kill each other, concrete-built cities, and pollution?

The bullet took my life but could not shatter the foundation of my dreams – the dream of the greener and fuller forests embedded in the lap of Nature Earth, where the future generations of lions and all animals will live their life happily. We, lions, do not have any legal court to fight for our rights but I would fight with God to help me in fulfilling my dreams.