'E' of #AtoZChallenge
I never figured whether I started loving elephants because Ganpati was (and has been) my favourite or whether I loved Ganpati because he is Elephant-headed.
OR
Whether I started loving elephants because I had my own little elephant since I was a year old.
His name is Appu, he is around thirty-one years old now. He is from Dubai and was given to me by my Surekha maushi on my first birthday. He is soft and grey and has black beady eyes and he has a tiny, cute, flat tail. Over the years he has had multiple surgeries because I would always tuck him in my arms and take him around everywhere I went be to the doctors, to the dairy, while visiting the relatives; and also because I always hugged him and slept every night for the longest time! He has sock-made-tusks stuffed with cotton (which have been stitched over and over by my mum through all these years).
Appu was not just my playmate and a companion, but he was my brother! Being the only child, I took it upon me to proclaim Appu as my Brother. I demanded he would be treated no less or shouldn't be made fun of. People and friends who didn't take him and my relation with Appu seriously would be easily mentally-discarded into my 'Heartless-People' list. And I never took them seriously (still don't). I owe my childhood to him and he helped me battle some serious loneliness and under-confidence issues I had as a child. Some may call it my defence mechanism. But if my defence mechanism looks like an Elephant, I am not complaining :)
As a child growing up in Mumbai, I have seen elephants on the street; begging and walking around with their mahouts. I would often see Raju and Bijlee (same elephant) on the streets of Mulund East. If I was standing in my Aaji's balcony, I would run down with a five-rupees coin, buy some bananas and feed the elephant. Bijlee would lay out her trunk in front of me and gobble down the tiny bananas. At times her warm, sticky, pointed tip of the trunk would brush my hand. It wasn't that eecky but comforting. I would pat her on her trunk and would wait till she would go farther down the street. I must be around ten or twelve then.
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| (Laxmi on the left, Bijlee on the right. I had taken this picture in July 2013 during Bijlee's last few days) |
Little did I know ten years later (at the age of twenty-two) I would see the same elephant, my Bijlee die. She had lived a painful life of begging, being starved, made to walk for hours on hot roads in every season. She died a slave. But she died releasing another slave, Laxmi the Elephant!
(More about Laxmi in later post).
Elephants and humans are alike. They both are social creatures and live within social groups. Both these creatures giggle, laugh, fight, gossip, eat, play and fart :)
Bijlee and Laxmi changed me and sensitized me. My love for and connection with elephants moved beyond collecting elephant shaped motifs. There's much to be learnt by just observing elephants in their natural habitat and at their natural behaviour. I was lucky to get a sneak peek into the happy lives of the elephants back in April 2017 at Wildlife SOS' Elephant Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre in Agra.
It would be four years since I last met the elephants but the impact the elephants have made is going to last for a lifetime. I am still finding ways to make more elephant friends and be more involved with elephants.
Time will tell how :)
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