Love takes many forms; but none as tough and enduring as a parents’ love. At times, it even goes blind: perhaps, as the old adage goes, in love, as in war, everything is fair.
RINNY EAPEN
A Forest Fire
An uncontrolled forest fire raged on for 21 days. Every effort was made to douse it but lakhs of plants, trees, reptiles, butterflies, insects, birds and animals were charred to ash and some species would have even become extinct. Almost every year some deranged person lights dry grass or plants with matches or a cigarette to watch the fun -houses burning, firemen rushing to the scene and some even being burnt alive! Every morning the burly head forest warden would start his Jeep and leave for inspection. He had not slept for days. Deep in the jungle below a tree he noticed a small nest, a bird had spread its wings covering it, it’s feet clutching the edges of the nest. It was pink in colour as the fire had burnt away all its feathers.
When the raging fire burnt down the branch supporting the nest, the nest floated down like a flying saucer and landed on the ground. The warden lifted the dead bird with his baton, below its wings four tiny birds screeched in fear; but the mother never left them and flew away. The big ranger wiped his tears away. He took the nest with the little birds to the small veterinary clinic in his bungalow and with an ink filler fed the birds and all four survived. When they grew bigger they flew into the forest but would return once in a while, where they would come and sit on the ranger’s shoulder or peck at his cheeks-they think he is their father.
No time to consider
A duck had hatched 3 eggs and would sit protectively over her three ducklings, once in a while the ducklings would cry and the mothers heart would flutter in fear. A wild dog half a kilometre away picked up the sound and started to drool at the thought of the small tender ducklings. He charged towards the sound and the mother’s heart turned to ice when she sighted the dog. She stood up, stretched her wings and her neck fully to look big and menacing and lunged at the dog in attack mode. The dog was irritated and angry, he had no time for the silly antics of the mother, with one snap he crushed the mother’s head. He took the duck a little further away, dug a pit and buried her, covering it with soil and dried leaves, saving it for later whenever there was a terrible food shortage. He returned to the ducklings and swallowed them one by one and sped away to his den which was two kilometres away.
His three puppies were moaning in hunger. He regurgitated one duckling at a time into each of their throats, the puppies were satiated and happy and nuzzled their father many times. It was the evening and he had not eaten anything for two days. He ran into the jungle in search of a squirrel or rodent for dinner. In his happiness of having provided the best dinner for his children, he had forgotten his own acute hunger.
All for his son’s education
A Hunter was sitting on a thick branch with his high tech binoculars, rifle and bag close to him when he was suddenly drawn by rays of psychedelic swirling lights emitting from the trunk of a tree. He zeroed in on it with his powerful binoculars and almost fell off his branch. A massive 8 foot long snake with a 2 foot girth, the likes of which he had never seen in his innumerable trips around the world; he had never read about or watched any documentary which had record of such a snake. The snake was now lying motionless eyeing the three puppies. It looked like a cross between a black momba, a black cobra and a rattlesnake. It was jet black with violet, copper and bronze rays emitting from his skin in the setting sun, his eyes were the brightest green; his beauty was beyond description. By a twist of luck, the area the Hunter spotted the snake was not a part of the Reserve Forest where hunting was illegal.
His whole world was in turmoil. Yesterday two things had happened to him- an unbelievable opportunity, but a resulting hopeless situation. After praying for eight long years, God had finally blessed him and his wife with a beautiful son. As he grew a little older, their dream was to put him in the best school in the city and they were able to get an appointment with the Principal. Although there was a large crowd waiting to meet him, the PA called them in but they were asked for donation which was extremely large. His wife literally fainted and the peon had to sprinkle a little water on her face for her to recover. She sat up but their dreams shattered. They would have to pledge everything they had and even then wouldn’t be able to raise even 25% of the amount required. Their son was very clever for a boy of his age but all that was of no use as the principal informed them, ‘So many ministers, IAS, IPS, MPs, MLAs and business tycoons are all waiting for a seat, so, please only come back if you can arrange the amount. I have asked my PA to hold the seat for one week for you.’ Even a thousand weeks would have been insufficient to raise the amount. They cried themselves to sleep. Money money money: it’s a rich man’s world!
A 100 kg blue fin tuna was auctioned in Japan for a million dollars. A 7 foot tall goat was bought by an Arab for sacrifice for 1.5 crores. A Kobe bull was auctioned for 2 million dollars. But these fish and animals have to be without any blemishes or marks, so you can’t shoot or harpoon them.
The Hunter would have to be extra careful but very quick. Then God’s wisdom struck him- he had an electric stun gun, he had to get as close to the snake as possible, the snake had already spotted him. If he gets too close the snake could make a lightening strike or shoot poison into his eyes which could reach even 10 feet and kill him on the spot. He moved like a ghost. He would risk anything for his son, he took a perfect shot between the snake’s green eyes and got him. He covered the snake’s head with a nylon net and taped it securely. There were many top notch farms all over the world that bred crocodiles, iguanas, snakes and many other reptiles. They kept shedding their skin, they didn’t need to be killed. They also cross bred them for new designs and colours.
He knew an Italian who was the worlds biggest procurer of the rarest and most expensive skins, antiques, etc. He was extremely rich and only did this business as it fascinated him.
A few days ago the chairman of LVMH, Bernard Arnault was named the richest man in the world overtaking the likes of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos who are all worth well over a 100 billion dollars each. It is unbelievably that during a pandemic the rich were getting richer and buying more properties, hotels, jewelry, etc. The atmosphere was perfect! Getting a one in a million chance, the Hunter was able to contact the Italian and explained everything to him. The Italian told him, ‘I will come to you in my private jet with my team. Don’t tell a single soul about this otherwise you will be in great danger, there are many ruthless smugglers. You called me as you trusted me, I will never short change you.’
The Italian came early morning to his small house, saw the snake and gasped, ‘I have never in my life seen anything so beautiful. You are one of the very few trustworthy suppliers. Here take this money- it’s 50,000 dollars. I will take out an insurance policy in your son’s name for 1 million dollars. As long as he studies, all his expenses will be taken care of with the interest.’
His assistants took the snake and left. The Hunter and his wife hugged and cried one more time. He hurried to the principal, paid the donation along with 12 years of fees.
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