Gentle Giants

 She sang. They stood transfixed, circling around her, without harming her. It was raining. They formed a protective wall around their keeper. They are always news. Big, at that. That is because they are hugely gentle, too.

Yes, I am talking of elephants. Truly gentle giants. Why, nearer home, remember Madhuri? No, silly! Do not be absurd! No, I am NOT talking of an actress. In the AI era, human beings have to be better informed! I am referring to the cow called Madhuri. Yes, a female elephant is, too, called cow.

Equally vigilante were the Kolhapur-kar's. They threatened to boycott the Jio package, a radical decision in a social media obsessed era! I do not know the locus standi of the Supreme Court proceedings regarding this issue. I do remember, however, how even muni's, the hermits from the aashram where she was a resident, wept while Madhuri was being taken away. A scene straight out of Kalidasa's "Shakuntalam"! Trees, creepers, animals, are upset; why, Sage Kanva, too, has tears in his eyes when Shakuntala is about to leave for her marital abode!

Elephants ARE indeed special. They are extremely intelligent. Their IQ is a scientifically established fact. So is their EQ! They respond to gentleness and kindness in kind. Unlike most human-beings, the real beasts on two legs.

As a herd, too, they are better than most of the human beings. They care for the elderly. They are always together. Unlike indians, who under the pretext of a false notion of modernity, are as heartless as is possible to the old and the fragile whom they leave to fend for themselves. 

No  old age homes, neither nuclear family kind of vicious selfishness amongst the elephants. Why, they mourn their dead. They return to the spot of death, unlike human beings for whom the 'shradhha', if performed at all, is a heart-less ritual, somehow finished off!

Of the wild animals, they must be the only ones to be regularly domesticated. Sure, wolves evolved to be dogs, a lovely transformation for which we should be eternally grateful. Equally committed and genuine are elephants! 

Remember the childhood visits to the zoo, and the reluctance to leave the elephant enclosure, given their kind invites to cuddle up to their trunks, their cute little eyes mischievous, their large ears flapping in joy?

No wonder, Lord Shiva chose the elephant head for his son! Come the Ganapati festival, which is approaching fast, and there would be any number of articles stating the attributes of elephants!

Elephants, in brief, are family! Every which way!

Pratima@The gentle giants can be a huge danger, when provoked. There are stories galore of the elephant  trouble, in fact, menace, whose forest dwellings actually human beings are encroaching! 

Remember the Aesop story of the elephant who taught the tailor a proper lesson for his wicked idea of 'fun'?!? 'Tit for tat' was the moral the gentle giants sure seemed to have learnt from the crooks called 'human' beings! 

Happy World Elephant Day!