Fascinating encounters with animals

Once at a field station, an army jawan sought my permission to bring his family on the grounds that he wanted to cherish the experience of seeing his child grow up. The convincing reason lingered on and stayed with me. Many years later, I too did not pack off my children to boarding schools, but they stayed at home, moving to different schools, gaining multifarious, nation-wide experience. They stayed at separated family stations with their mother and grew up as talented cantonment kids.

Home is the most suitable place to nurture human values, spiritual beliefs, and benevolence for animals and for the deprived and needy. My daughter has an evolved fondness for animals now.

She had an exuberant experience once with a baby monkey that she had found sitting placidly outside her apartment. As she beckoned, it clung on to her, moaning softly. It lapped up the warm milk offered to it, feebly clutching with its paws, the utensil that she held. Gazing into her eyes and whimpering, with its pale tongue, it wiped off the leftover traces of milk. The baby monkey soon dozed off to sleep as she tucked it in a warm house coat. As she was rushing off for her job, she left it at the same place where she had found it. Soon after, it had disappeared and the abandoned coat lay at the site.

Another incident involved a cat, which had delivered its litter in my daughter’s car, when she had inadvertently left the window pane slid down. While turning the ignition key, she heard the kitten whine softly, and heads of fur jostled behind the driver’s seat. She procured cardboard cartons, and as she took one kitten and gently placed it in the carton, the cat arrived on the scene, entered the car, picked up another kitten and placed it on my daughter’s extended palm. She obliged the cat and placed the carton at a secure place, out of the reach of predators.

Then there is a mongrel pup that has strayed into the military hospital where my daughter works. She has named it Murgi because it remains shy and elusive to the human touch, maybe some past instance of illtreatment at the hands of humans is the cause. Murgi is an asset to the night guards, barking loudly around the perimeter wall to ward off intruders.

People are baffled that ferocious stray hounds are at my daughter’s bidding. They wag their tails and foray around. A lame, limping, young donkey, thrown out by its owner, is another favourite of hers. Nowhere to go, it loiters on a disused road. Whenever a passerby extends a hand, it fondly lays its head on it, reciprocating the affection.

Some people’s lively charm with animals is intriguing to the non-initiated, who realise little that loving an animal is a soothing, exhilarating experience, signifying nobility. One’s soul is really not awakened unless one has loved an animal.

LOVING AN ANIMAL IS A SOOTHING, EXHILARATING EXPERIENCE, SIGNIFYING NOBILITY. ONE’S SOUL IS REALLY NOT AWAKENED UNLESS ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL