Chaitanya was always jealous of Rajan. Not of his two extra legs or his long trunk, but the fact that his father spent all his day with Rajan and not him. Chaitanya's father was a mahout in the Periyar National Park, and he was Chaitanya's most favourite person in the whole wide world. He loved how his father would come back exhausted and hug him from behind. His father knew how to make him laugh when he was sad or depressed. He was proud of his dad for being the tourists' most sought after mahout and how he held so much knowledge about the secrets of the park, which was a vast illusory area of dense evergreen forests gasconading of fragrant sandalwoods to bearing jamuns to sacred figs and medlies of flowers in every colour and trick. With branched streams flowing with the soft delectable sound of water gushing smoothing porous rocks as it goes. Of waterfalls cascading in the middle of dense forests. For Chaitanya, the land was his infinite home and he had never seen or felt the need to see the world outside. In his life of seven years he had learnt the forest ways, clambering up tall tress to get sweet mangoes, running through inpenetrable forests and bathing in the rivers with the elephants. Chaitanya knew he shared the forest with a diverse number of animals and he had learned to care for them deeply, much like he loved his eight month old sister Sulekha. He even liked the monkeys more than Sulekha since they weren't as noisy as her and were far more entertaining (all she did was cry, eat and sleep). However he could never get himself to love Rajan, the elephant as much as his Achan and Amma did. They would sit beside him and stroke his fat back and talk to him like he could hear them. His father not only spent his entire days working with Rajan but would also spend his time at home caring and loving the big mammal. The little boy was so envious of Rajan he on multiple times took him to a point far off from home and leave him there but Rajan found his way back consistently, once returning even before Chaitanya. His father had been with the now thirty two year old elephant ever since he was ten years old and had essentially grown up with him. He had tried to set the ball rolling between Chaitanya and Rajan by asking Chaitanya to bathe Rajan or to feed him bananas. But he never got over his resentment for Rajan.
One day, when he was out by his hut, practising the alphabet he had just learnt in school when Madhav the neighbor's son came and gave the dreadful news to Chaitanya's mother. His father had fatefully drowned in the boat he had set out on to reach the town to meet some far off relatives. Chaitanya could not fully understand what had happened until he saw his mother falling to her knees and breaking down. It hit him with the impact of a hundred gypsies how his Achan would never come home and hug him tightly from behind. He would never see his father's kind smile. Last night's story of the jackal who tried to eat a drum had been his last one. He sat with his amma inside the house for what seemed like a century. She either cried uncontrollably or went absolutely still. He took Sulekha in his lap and wished with every molecule of his thin body to God to return his Achan.
It was three days when he finally ventured outside the tiny hut, when the other kids called Chaitanya outside to divert his mind from the painful incident. He was standing remembering happy moments with Achan when he felt something grip him from behind and hold him tightly. It was an elephant's trunk, it was Rajan.
One day, when he was out by his hut, practising the alphabet he had just learnt in school when Madhav the neighbor's son came and gave the dreadful news to Chaitanya's mother. His father had fatefully drowned in the boat he had set out on to reach the town to meet some far off relatives. Chaitanya could not fully understand what had happened until he saw his mother falling to her knees and breaking down. It hit him with the impact of a hundred gypsies how his Achan would never come home and hug him tightly from behind. He would never see his father's kind smile. Last night's story of the jackal who tried to eat a drum had been his last one. He sat with his amma inside the house for what seemed like a century. She either cried uncontrollably or went absolutely still. He took Sulekha in his lap and wished with every molecule of his thin body to God to return his Achan.
It was three days when he finally ventured outside the tiny hut, when the other kids called Chaitanya outside to divert his mind from the painful incident. He was standing remembering happy moments with Achan when he felt something grip him from behind and hold him tightly. It was an elephant's trunk, it was Rajan.
