My Rendezvous with Providence aided
by a lone Tusker.
It was the winter
month of January during the early nineties and in my adopted hometown (Mysore), a
good 140kms from Bangalore that we (my husband Prakash and I) planned to
venture out on a two-wheeler to savour the nature in the nearby nature reserve.
We chose 25th
January for our tryst with nature so that we could rest the next day (a
public holiday) before we start afresh on 27th with our jobs. As
planned, we set out early in the morning to nearby Nagarahole forest (don’t
know what Rajiv Gandhi has to do with this nature reserve let alone visit it
ever, as it is named after him).
That said, we
packed enough food, water and other stuff to take care of our needs for the day
trip as we planned to return later in the evening.
The weather was
lovely, romantic and since we were leading a carefree life (our only daughter
was born a good many years later), with no responsibilities, we wanted to
indulge ourselves getting a bit free and wild. The journey was comfortable and as
we reached the national park around 10:30 am, we were a bit disappointed to
hear that the morning safari timings were over.
The officials suggested that we
visit the nearby Irupu falls, have our lunch and return by 3:00pm for the next
safari schedule.
Sooner than said,
we found our way to this beautiful waterfalls cascading the tree-lined rocks. We were
totally lost on beholding the beautiful falls and the nature surrounding it.
Before long we heard chitter-chatter, giggles and laughs of a group of young
girls who were already playing in the water. Later on, we came to know that
they were from Maharani’s College, Mysore.
As we ventured
further towards the noise, they saw us and started teasing and enticing us to play
with them. Sporty that we were, we too started playing with them and teasing
them to the hilt. After spending a good hour or two with them, post-lunch, we returned
to the Reserve’s office and parked ourselves in one of the Safari vehicles. Our
safari tour was nothing short of utter disappointment as throughout the hour
and a half journey, we couldn’t see any wildlife.
Prakash suggested
that we should start by 5:00pm so that we can see some wildlife, as they come
towards the waterholes during the dusk and by any luck we can catch sight of
some. By then, the buses that brought the college girls started to leave and we
decided to follow them so that should we encounter any wildlife and at any
chance of risk, we could board one of those buses.
Off we went
following those buses and encouraged by the roar of cheering girls in the
buses, my husband started playing with the bus driver by overtaking him and
after a distance, allowing him to overtake us and this repeated a few
times. I too enjoyed screaming and laughing with the girls as I tried to
masquerade my disappointment of not seeing any wildlife, with this newfound
diversion. This happened for quite some time and then we sped off leaving the
buses behind, to kiss the dust left by us.
As we gathered
speed and covered some distance, Prakash spotted elephant droppings and showing
that to me, he said we could see some wildlife after all. I hit him on the head
for his naughty comment and didn’t take notice of it.
All of all of
sudden, just a good few hundred meters in front of us, was a herd of elephants
of all sizes and maybe 40-50 in number crossing the road. We had to, but stop
the vehicle and turn off the engine. Watching them playfully crossing the road,
we were thinking of how lucky we were in witnessing majestic herd trumpeting to
glory.
At the end of the
herd was a lone tusker of mammoth proportions who was yet to cross the road
from our right to left.
By then, the two
buses came and went ahead of us towards crossing the lone tusker. The girls
exploded at the sight of the tusker and started making noise amidst clicking of
cameras. This attracted the elephant but as they say, he was blind in the right
eye. Irritated to the core; with his left eye, he saw us and came charging towards
us.
Prakash yelled at
me to jump off the bike and run for my life as he too did the same. I was too
shocked to do anything and before I realised the state I was in, I was lying
flat on the road with my left leg trapped beneath the fallen vehicle. The
tusker came towards me and with his huge trunk around my slender waist, yanked
me out that released my left leg from under the vehicle.
I thought my end had
come and was praying for a swift one, if that. But he gently put me down.
By then Prakash
had reached the bus in the front and thought I too would have run behind him
towards the bus. Girls on the bus were horrified at the sight of me and started
yelling “Help her” but he heard it as “Hurry up” (which he told me later).
In his anxiety to
make me board the bus first, he turned his head back only to see the ghastly
sight of me lying on the road with the tusker playing with my body. He thought
of the worst and fearing that I was dead, he collapsed and fainted. Some of the
teachers from the bus tried to revive him but to no avail. He was shifted into
the bus and all were watching my plight with utter helplessness.
Back to my plight,
the tusker kicked me and I started rolling on the ground and slid into one of the
nearby pits dug by the forest authorities for planting saplings. He picked me
up from the pit and placed me on the ground. Then he removed my brand new
golden coloured sandals and flung them into the air. That was the last I saw of
them and even in the midst of my ordeal, I was quite sad to see them go as it was
my much loved new sandals.
Next in line was
my goggles that were skilfully plucked off my face and he exhibited his throwing
prowess. Now that it was only me he had to contend with, I was very weak even
to imagine “what next”. What followed next, made me realise that there are some
forces and powers beyond our imagination and comprehension.
Next I saw myself
snuggly held by his trunk and even in this plight, I remembered the girls in
the circus being held like that. He threw me in the air and caught me before I
could be smashed to the ground. I lost count of how many time this happened and
each time I thought “This is it, my end is now” but to my surprise, I was still
breathing and with horror I was witnessing how my body was being used as a toy
by this huge tusker of a being.
With no one but
God to help me, I started praying to my favourite God Ganesha, the elephant
God. I had prayed to Him sincerely all these years and my only prayer now was
that if it was death I was destined today, to make it quick and painless.
But my God had
other ideas. The tusker played with me for a long time, I think, as I had lost
the sense of time. He then put me down gently on the ground and placed his foot
on my chest. I thought ‘This was it” and I would be crushed in no time.
Instead, he caressed me with his foot and I was flabbergasted and shocked at
the same time even in such a terminal situation, to see the gentleness with
which he was doing this. He lifted me off the ground again and put me on his
head. Thinking back, I could humour myself as a royalty sitting on an elephant
and looking down on my subjects. It appears he had other ideas. He put me down
on the ground again and repeated this many times. While I had closed my eyes
out of sheer fear and tried opening at times to slyly understand the situation,
he was iterating the exercise as a routine.
At one such point,
I noticed that there was a time lag and slyly opened my eyes to see what next?
By some strange chance, his attention was caught by the fallen vehicle’s lights
that had started to glow. He went to the vehicle, kicked it tearing into a
couple of pieces and returned to me.
By then, the
driver of the bus mustered some courage and came to divert him so that with the
help of others, they could safely pull me to the bus. The tusker was in no
means to let go of me. He chased away the driver much to my agony and to the
anguish of the passengers in the bus.
After what seemed
to be an eternity, one of the Forest Department’s vehicles happened to cross
that way and they were soon apprised of the events by the bus driver and
passengers. One of the officials fired a shot in the air to scare the tusker.
He still had other ideas, it appears, as he soon picked me with his trunk and
dashed into the thick woods. The Rangers came after him and fired another shot
in the air. He loosened the grip on me and as I slid to the bushes and on to
the ground, he headed back into the thick forest not to be seen again.
It was dark by
then and we were taken to the Reserve’s office where I was administered first
aid along with Prakash. They pleaded the bus driver to take us to Mysore but
the college teachers and the principal wouldn’t listen to us and refused point-blank fearing that this would be a police case and unnecessary hassle to them.
The Rangers
somehow hired a vehicle and take us to a nearby village called Kutta where I
was sedated to brush off my shock. Story of my tryst with death despite an attack
from a lone tusker had spread to the nearby villages and the natives had thronged
Kutta by then.
On waking up from
my sedated slumber, I was told that there are a lot of natives (Jenu Kurubas)
from the forest, who wanted to see me. I was taken aback when they started
touching my feet with reverence and praying with folded hands. I was told that
they thought I was an angel and hence could escape such a ghastly incident with
no major injuries (though I was bruised and battered). Most people, who had
been in such instances, never lived to tell their tales.
Rangers were indeed
divine incarnation in helping us that day and somehow they could hire a Jeep to
bring whatever was left of our vehicle and of ourselves back to Mysore, which
we reached in the wee hours of 26th.
I don’t even count
the number of deaths I died in those moments and I am sure, I would put any cat
to shame as they just have 9 lives.
It took me many
moons to overcome the shock and was inundated with nightmares every often. I
still wonder why he didn’t harm me as I had grown up listening to stories of
how dangerous it is to get accosted by a lone tusker.
Thinking back; it
was nothing short of a miracle that I survived the attack, though I had
surrendered completely and was at the mercy of the mammoth, thinking of my
inevitable gory end but have lived this long to tell the tale. Even though it
is close to 3 decades, I still get goose-bumps whenever I recall this incident
or whenever any reference to the nature reserve is made.
This incident made
me famous in my neighbourhood and also in the surrounding areas, adding to my popularity
due to my modeling career (that was cut short due to other reasons).
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