Elephants... Soul keepers of the Earth.
Re-sharing something I wrote... just because it makes me happy sharing it.
Dedicated to
Elephants... Soul keepers of the Earth.
The first ever elephant encounter was when I was 6 or 7 . We were on our annual summer vacation trip to Kerala and had visited ChottanikaraTemple . We stopped for the famous Goli Soda at a small tea stall. When suddenly there comes a beautiful pachyderm with his mahouth. Oh! that was the first time I had seen an elephant that close and the Mahouth, well whats to say, he was my hero. I could not hold my excitement and yelled at the top of my voice, " Heyyyyy Aanakaara , Idhar Aao,". Aana is Malayalam for elephant and the rest were the languages I was familiar with. I remember the entire crowd of people and the tea stall owner burst out laughing. Then they all shouted in unison, " Aanakara idhar aao." And the elephant slowly came walking like a giant , slow and oblivious to the daily grind. I fed him bananas and bread too I think. I actually wanted him to have a Goli soda, but was not allowed to do that.
I remember a few years later when we visited again, my father asked the tea stall owner, " Do you remember her? Aanakara idhar aao? " I was embarrased to the core but still remember the tea stall man smiling away and chatting happily with my father. I also got a complimentary Narengya mittayi or lemon candy.
The 2nd elephant who left her mark on me when I was 17 yrs old was Shyamalam, a temple elephant who used to to come to the temple near my home for festivals. We had a lot of coconut tree leaves cut that day and it was lying around in the courtyard. Shyamalam a small rounded beauty came walking by and stood there near our gate eyeing the leaves happily. She refused to budge. The mahouth called out from over the gate and asked if he could feed her few of them and we were only happy to oblige. As we opened the gate she just rushed in all friendly and waiting to be pampered. as she ate the leaves she allowed us to pet her and hug her. The feeling was ethereal.
After that day whenever she visited the temple our home was a compulsory stop and we always had something kept aside for her. Once she came unannounced and satisfied herself happily with half a Christmas cake, a cabbage and a lump of jaggery. After many years she stopped coming. I hope she is well, wherever she is. Am sure if our paths cross she will surely recognise us and search our hands for goodies.
The 3rd was Gajapati ❤. Thank you AshokRajagopalan for this absolutely sweetheart of a character! All his antics took me years back to those lovely memories and still do. It is still more of my book than my son's.
@SindhuMenon
SindhuMenonWrites
Elephants keralatourism keralastories
Comments