MEMORIES & THOUGHTS!

4. Undone things.

There was something I eagerly waited for in the new house. It was something I came to know about after coming there only, or it might be that, I had not noticed before.

It was the ringing of chains!

Whenever I heard that ringing, I would jump and run towards it, and I would wait for it, to approach.

I wonder, how many of my mom's side cousins might have got this chance as I envy them for many others. 😄

What was that was approaching???

It was the most exciting vision for the then me!

An elephant was coming by the private road!!

It waa taking a short cut through the private road. There would be a mahot with it always. It might carry its food, the palm leaves! Or it might be carrying wood to the nearby sawmill. Or it may go simply trunk free.

Whatever it might be, that enormous vision would fill my whole eyes and brain. I could watch it from a distance of 3 metres. I could walk with the elephant along side the private road till the end of our plot. I might sometime bring banana for the elephant but, was never courageous of stretching my hands. All these happened without his knowledge.
😄😄😄

This particular elephant had a name. It was Kuttikrishnan. Dad told me its name and other details.

He was around 30 years of age. He had lost one eye in a fight with another elephant. He was attacked. He was considered to be very mild and gentle.

One afternoon, when I was playing in the courtyard,  a flash of him appeared on the private road. I just saw a man hanging from his tusk in underwear and he ran very fast towards the main road.

Following him, there was a mob shouting at him.

Listening to the mess, mom came out and enquired people following him and came back and told that my beloved Kuttikrishnan had stabbed his mahot with his tusk, and started running carrying him in his trunk.

I did not understand, on seeing the visual what was going on. So, I just stayed there watching him run with a man in his front. Even after mom said it I did not get the content in its whole effect. It remained just as that visual in me.

It was heard later, that the mahot punished him for something trivial and he got angry. He ran with the mahot for three kilometers.

Dad had told me that he had great intelligence and he is a calm fellow usually. Why would have he became that angry???

I could not hate Kuttikrishnan, but I was angry at the dead mahot. I loved him more and more. I could see him everyday as he was tied in a place near the junction, and I descent the hill every morning to catch my bus to school, passing him.

After the incident, he was taken nowhere. He was left in the same place. He might have been given special care afterwards. I could find him the still calm person😊.

He was so gentle before kids. He never even swayed his trunk before me.

I used to watch him from a higher level when at my home as our place stay at a higher level than the private road. Even higher than the elaphant 's head.

Sometimes he was tied in the new mahot's house before their home, just like people tie their pets infront of their house. This house was on the way to my Dad's paternal home.

Our family used to go there by walk.

Kuttikrishnan's sight even from a distance was very pleasant. When we reach near him, things would happen ironically . I feel palpitations and couldn't walk forward. He would stand very near to the road we walked.