The Animals of Freedom.

In the forest of Bonanchal lived the animals of freedom. Bonanchal had a hierarchy. It was the hierarchy of animals, where all the animals were accommodated, depending on the strength, wisdom, cunning, athleticism, and speed.

The king of this Bonanchal forest was the wise lion named Braveheart. He with his clan of lions never touched the kill of some other predator, nor would they kill if they were not hungry. This single attribute led to immense respect from his fellow animals.

Next came the much-revered tiger, Sher Singh. He was the head of the ministers of animals of freedom. He would roam majestically camouflaging himself in the elephant grasses and just bring in news from across the forest of Bonanchal with the help of Khabri, the monkey.

Sher Singh once went to collect news from Bonanto, the edge of the forest which was very close to the human abode. Sher Singh couldn’t believe what he saw when he reached Bonanto. He saw hordes of people sitting around an elevated platform, which was filled with children, who were dressed like the animals of freedom. Each child was emulating what was attributable to the distinctive trait of animals of freedom. The men were laughing, drinking and enjoying, as their own offsprings brought joy to their faces mimicking the animals of freedom. Some were dressed like the evergreen trees and they appeared to be swaying in the gentle breeze.

Sher Singh watched the proceeding very carefully. What were these humans up to?  The humans were unaware of the presence of Sher Singh since he was camouflaged by the yellowish-green, elephant grass. Yet, Sher Singh could feel that these humans were enjoying themselves, watching the antics of their own offsprings. After watching this for some time, he decided to return to Bonanchal to report this to the king.

Meanwhile, the absence of the head of the ministers at the durbar of the king of the animals of freedom had everyone on their toes since Sher Singh was seldom late. Braveheart was getting impatient and asked, “When was the last time anyone saw Sher Singh?”

Khabri the monkey answered, “Sir, according to Bhalu the bear, Sher Singh was last seen venturing towards the forbidden territory of Bonanto!”

“Bonanto, but why?” exclaimed Braveheart.

“It is not wise to go to Bonanto, the humans frequently go there!” said Khabri.

Braveheart said, “Well, nothing to worry, we all know what Sher Singh is capable of, so security-wise it is not an issue! But for safety issues, I think we should ask Pilot to take a look!”

Pilot was the name of the eagle who had the best view of what’s brewing in the forest below. He was a friend of Khabri the monkey. He was a master of flight, fast and efficient. So agile, that even the fish underwater was not spared from his claws. Khabri quickly said something to his fellow mates that Pilot needed to be informed at the earliest.

The news spread like wildfire through the forest and soon Pilot was up in the sky to locate Sher Singh. Within no time, Pilot saw Sher Singh making his way towards the durbar not far from the meandering river. Pilot, came down in a jiffy to report this to Braveheart about his findings.

Braveheart was relieved once he heard this and said, “I would really like to know why Sher Singh wanted to visit Bonanto!”

Hunter the Leopard who was but jealous of Sher Singh said, “Sir, Sher Singh violates your rules of not venturing out of Bonanchal repeatedly. Why don’t you scold him for not listening to your orders?”

Braveheart deliberated wisely, “Let us know the exact reason first. Let Sher Singh come, and express why he went to Bonanto?”

The Hyenas who were led by GreedyBaba supported Hunter, and said, “Yes Sir, let Sher Singh defend himself.”

Soon Sher Singh arrived and sought Braveheart’s permission to say what he had to in this matter. “We the animals of freedom live in harmony amongst ourselves. Yet we are getting marginalised day by day by the humans. What is that they have that we don’t have? We are so diverse from humans. Some of us have powerful jaws, fangs, paws, wings, horns, hooves, tails which the humans don’t possess. Yet, how are they superior from us. I went to get a peek into their lifestyle to understand what makes them special.”

By then, most of the animals of freedom had gathered around the old dilapidated temple which was once the home of humans, yet now it was deserted and inhabited by the animals of freedom who claimed it their own by saying, “This is our triumph over the humans!”

Sher Singh continued, “What I saw you won’t believe, I saw children emulating each one of us on an elevated platform as I speak and the humans were actually enjoying themselves as their offsprings were actually imitating us! I had heard that they do it, they call us uncivilised, yet they stoop below their dignity to ape us!”

“I agree with him,” said Bhalu the bear.

By then most of the animals of freedom were perturbed by this. Some started deliberating why the humans would stoop so low to imitate them. “Why can’t the humans, let us be ourselves! We never emulate the humans!” said Hunter. As the pandemonium grew, Braveheart let out a roar and said, “Quiet! Quiet Please!”

Things fell into place as silence was restored. Braveheart then called upon Lakshmishwar the owl to explain saying, “Lakshmishwar, your kind have been in touch with the humans as well as with us! What do you say regarding this?”

The white owl one of the wisest creatures among the birds then flew down and sat on the centre stage of the durbar and said, “Well I have friends all over the world. One thing to admit is that humans are very clever, they try to domesticate each of our kinds for their benefit. They have befriended us because they need to protect their crops being destroyed by the rats like Groundscorcher, and to keep the rat population under control. We need food and they need us. So it is a sort of mutually beneficial process.  However, coming back to the point, I think it is true what Sher Singh has said. Humans follow the process of imitating the animals through their kids and it is absolutely true also that they get into brawls if their offspring don’t get centre stage imitating us.  And they still call us uncivilised!”

This amused many and they laughed at this. However, for Braveheart, this was not a matter to laugh. So he asked, “Lakshmishwar, do you think they do this to insult and belittle us?”

Before Lakshmishwar could answer, Hati the elephant king who was silently watching the proceedings, shaping up intervened and he said, “I don’t think they want to insult us when they do so. They do so because they can understand, emulate and imitate us better!”

Hunter intervened, “Why on earth do they want to understand us? I don’t agree since they are the ones who marginalised us!”

Hati said, “Well, they tried to read our minds and to dominate us watching us from close quarters. They want to teach their children about our strengths and to forget their weaknesses!”

Sher Singh lauded Hati for this and said, “Well said, couldn’t have said it better!”

Braveheart who was analysing this said, “If they don’t insult us, then there are no issues, but what do you think of this?”

Again pandemonium broke loose, as all the animals started deliberating who was correct and who was wrong. Sanity was restored once Braveheart yelled and said, “Quiet please!”

Braveheart said aloud, “Do you feel insulted by what the humans are doing! Let’s have a vote! Those who feel insulted please raise their hooves, paws, and wings!”

Then the voting started. The squirrel, the statistician among the animals of freedom, actually counted and declared the result. 48% of the animals actually felt insulted and 52% didn’t feel insulted.

But still, Braveheart was not convinced. “It’s a really close margin, so it needs a bit more deliberation.”

Wiley the fox intervened and said, “When you can’t come to a decision I can be of much help!”

Braveheart who was thinking, then said, “What is your say regarding this issue, Wiley?”

Wiley said, “Why don’t we teach our children to ape the humans? This might help us imitate the human race better and help us get our revenge!”

“Excellent idea!” said almost everyone.

It was then that Braveheart told Khabri the monkey to prepare a script and set a framework. It was unanimously decided that children of the animals of freedom would ape the humans.

“What do the humans do?” asked Braveheart.

“There are many answers to this question!” said Khabri the monkey.

“Some of them are engineers! For us the beaver can replace them, they are the ones who inspired the humans to dam the river” said Hati the wise.

“Some of them are school teachers! For us, Wiley the fox can be a replacement for them” said Lakshmishwar the owl.

“Some of them even bring news from around the places!” said Khabri.

“I, Pilot and Doveling the dove can be messengers of news, peace, and mail,” said Khabri the monkey.

“They even hunt us. Hunter or Sher Singh could do that for us!” This pleased both Sher Singh and Hunter, who licked his paws in appreciation.

“The peacock would play the actresses!” said Bhalu the bear.

“They just love to show off, they are elegant and the steps that they take would match that of the Hindi film actresses!” said Mason the Bison.

Who would play the directors then? Asked Hati.

“Well, the swans undoubtedly!” said Wiley. He continued, “They are the ones who always shout, ‘Quack! Quack! Quack!’ which is so close to Pack! Pack! Pack! Something like what the directors shout at the close of the day like Pack-up! Pack-up! Pack-up!”

“The deer would emulate the sprinters and the athletics people!” said Hati.

“The thugs by the Hyenas led by GreedyBaba!” said Khabri.

Fortunately or unfortunately, there are always traitors. The animals of freedom were was not free from spies deliberately planted by humans. The red beaked green parrot was one of them. They were the ultimate traitors who brought this news to me from the land of the animals of freedom, as they could communicate with us in our language and also with the animals of freedom in their language.  It’s a complex issue don’t you say. If you think you can have a solution to this problem faced by the animals of freedom, then do let me know, so that I can communicate with them through the double agent named Kesto the red-beaked green parrot.