Sundervan was an ideal,
self-governed reserve forest that was completely at peace with itself. Here all
the animals lived in absolute harmony that would have put to shame the person
who gave a negative connotation to the term ‘Jungle Raj’. A few incidents in the past few weeks,
however, had disheveled this fine equilibrium at Sundervan and it was chaos
everywhere.
In the past few weeks, the
inhabitants of the forest had found many of their friends and family members
killed by some other animals. A few others disappeared mysteriously. Some inhabitants had accused the members of
the Tiger family responsible for these crimes as they claimed to have seen them
carrying out these killings. Tigers, on the other hand, claimed innocence.
Bholu Bear and his trusted
troops, who were responsible to maintain law and order in the jungle, had
meanwhile used their spy network to keep an eye on the movements of the
suspected animals. And on one of their pursuits, they captured a Tiger red
handed while committing the crime. But during the course of their
investigation, they realized that what they had captured was, in fact, not a
Tiger but a Hyena wearing the skin of a Tiger. The Hyena further revealed that over the past
few months, a few hundreds of Hyenas had crossed over from the adjacent forest
and had penetrated into the various jungle colonies masquerading as Tigers. The
tiger skin was so well stuck to the Hyena skin that it was not easy for a
common jungle inhabitant to identify.
Sheru, the King of Sundervan was
deeply concerned with the developments and had immediately ordered to identify
all the Hyenas amongst the Tigers. A whole battalion of Bholu’s cadets were
pressed into service to spot any Tiger and pull its skin to ensure it was not a
Hyena. While many Hyenas were identified
and captured in the process, this had put the genuine Tigers into much
inconvenience and pain. More than the physical discomfort, it was some sense of
humiliation that was causing considerable consternation amongst the genuine
Tigers and they were resenting the very idea of this exercise. A few other
animals were also sympathetic to them.
After letting them to vent their
emotions for some time, Sheru stood up from his seat. It took a little more time
than the normal before all the animals took note of it and retreated to their
seats, albeit a little reluctantly. The Sundervan tradition did not allow any
animal to make a statement out of turn, while the King was standing on the
dais.
To start with, Sheru made it
clear to the animals that Bholu and his cadets were performing a duty as mandated
by him and therefore, if there was any inconvenience to any of the inhabitants,
he owned up the responsibility for the same. And then he turned towards Gaja,
who was lost in his own deep thoughts, and sought his advice on the prevailing
situation.
Gaja moved slowly to the center
of the dais, all along lost in his thoughts, perhaps making up his mind as to
what would be his messaging at this critical juncture. He cleared his throat and provided a brief
update on the sequence of events that had led to the current imbroglio. Then he
looked towards the streak of Tigers sitting in a corner and chided them almost
holding them responsible for the situation. He thought, if the Tigers were
circumspect, if they were vigilant enough from the beginning, they could have
avoided this ugly state. Were they just careless or was that a case of
callousness. Given the fact that Tigers can smell their brethren from a
distance, how come the presence of a set of imposters amongst them never raised
a doubt in their minds. Gaja’s tone turned stern now - You could have smelt out
those frauds, you didn’t. You could have observed their distinct mannerisms;
you chose not to. You would have noticed their suspicious movements; you
ignored. You thought they wore your colours, so their quirkiness would not harm
you after all. But they tainted your own
colour. And now they have entrenched
themselves so deep into your lives that you have almost forgotten your own
smell to be able to isolate them.
Sheru realized he had to step in
now. He asked Gaja, almost pleadingly – Is there another way to insulate the
real ones and still sieve out the imposters. One that would not cause pain to
our genuine Tigers. Gaja looked at Sheru with a resigned gaze and said - There is too much negativity
around. Weeding out harmful influences should be your priority now. Even a small
chunk of negative stimulus could eat up the entire positive life for breakfast.
You are the King and we expect you to take tough decisions
in the interest of this jungle. If that doesn't please all, so be it. And
to mitigate the pains of the Tigers, I would advise them to go to the cadets
voluntarily at their convenience. That will speed up the process and will also
lessen the pain for them - both physiological and the psychological. Faster
they help us identify the fraudsters, quicker will be the relief. If it
was an elephant skin instead of the tiger, I would have surely been keen to be
the first to get myself cleared.
As the crowd dispersed – some
looking happy, a few others looking dejected, Sheru asked Gaja – will this
work? Gaja continued with his wisdom pearls -
I am under no illusion that all of them agree with me here. But I can
guarantee you, if we do not recover from this fast, this will generate
enough hatred amongst the jungle inhabitants and will spread like a fire that
will engulf all of us. It will be a civil war that none of us would be able to
stop. Most of us will die and those who survive will not have a good enough reason
left to survive. You are the King for a reason. You need to think holistically
and follow your ‘Raj-dharma’.
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