Why Am I An Animal?

I could hear a growl. Sigh!! Hunger was playing games with me. It was my six day old empty stomach which was the reason behind the commotion disturbing the peace and quiet of the early night. I rubbed my belly and wondered aloud

that I will have to satiate my stomach sometime soon. Darn, I should have whispered to my stomach, because just then one of my six day old twins opened her little beautiful eyes. How beautiful they looked sleeping peacefully? But no time to admire the sleeping beauties as my maternal instincts kicked in and I knew the routine had to be followed again.

I moved closer towards the awake baby and nursed her. But to my surprise and horror, my baby started bawling even while I tried to nurse her. "Shhh!! Young lady, otherwise your twin brother will wake up too". Oh! No, too late, her sibling had started stirring now.

These were the times, when I literally wanted to shout out, O' God, why did you give me twins? Raising two children was proving more than a handful to me, what with my philandering husband having conveniently run away after impregnating me. I tell you, all males are like that. Damn you, my husband!

Controlling my emotional outburst, I snuggled closer to both my babies in order to nurse them again. But the bawling did not stop. I tried changing my position, lifting my babies but nothing helped. Then I realized, the milk had stopped flowing and this was the reason the hunger of my babies was not getting satiated. With every passing moment, the cries of the babies was getting louder and shriller. O' God, what should I do now was the thought that pulsed through my panicked mind. Taking a deep breath I tried to calm my mind and realized, that ever since the delivery of my twins I had not had anything sumptuous or healthy to eat. My milk had been flowing until now but the earlier stomach growl had been a sign that I needed to replenish my body with some food immediately.

Both of my babies had stopped crying and were looking at me imploringly for milk. I cooed to them, "Soon my children, I will feed you both soon, but before that Ma needs to eat a little something". I decided to sing them a lullaby so that sleep would embrace them from the grasps of hunger. I was rusty with my singing, but nevertheless I improvised on the lyrics and soon the eyes of both my twins became droopy and within a span of half an hour, both of them fell asleep again.

I got up and stretched the aching muscles of my body. I looked around the house and all I saw was emptiness. I had binged on all my food stocks and now there was nothing in the house to munch on. Looking out of the window, I realized it was fast approaching the witching hour and I could venture out of the house soon to grab a quick bite.  I snatched a quick look at my sleeping babies and yes, they were fast asleep, probably dreaming about drinking milk. My cutie pies, what should I name them. Hmm! May be after I have eaten and fed my babies, I will ponder over this all important question of naming my children. After all, a nicer sounding name is half the battle won. Pity those parents who do not put a thought towards naming their children. I winced as I remembered my younger sister who had been named 'Munia'. What with the people of the village nearby having a song blaring out of their radios,'Muni badnam hui, darling tere liye'. Poor Munia had been the butt of all jokes throughout her live. Nah! I will be careful and give my twins fashionably modern names.

I ventured out of the house as quietly as possible as I did not want to disturb the hunger and lullaby induced sleep of my twins. Alternating between speed walking and jogging I reached the end of the forest and the beginning of the village in good time. There was a time when I used to live in the land where the village has now proclaimed itself, but alas I had been forced out of my own land like an outcast. Now as a result of this, I lived deep within the forests.

Keeping to the shadows and tip toeing as silently as possible I entered the dirt tracks that separated the houses within the village. I had my mind on the goat house of the village headman. I wanted to raid the goat house as quietly and quickly as possible. Grab a goat and run home to savor it at my own leisurely pace. After all a postpartum mother needs some high grade protein in order to heal from the stress of baby-birth.

Something was amiss that alerted my sixth sense and I crouched down behind a wall. Careful not to make any sounds, I strained hard to listen to any on toward noises. I was not able to point the reason for the growing unease affecting me. Nevertheless I decided to wait a couple of minutes before I resumed my raid. The uneasiness never left me. This feeling was something new for me. I had always been a brave heart and never been afraid of the villagers. Then why was I feeling uneasy tonight.

The age old battle of the heart versus the mind took over me immediately. My heart responded to the uneasy feeling by wishing me to return home as soon as possible, for maybe my babies had woken up and finding me absent were crying

themselves hoarse. The mind never to be outdone, responded by telling me that no food for me meant no milk for the babies. I knew the babies could not tolerate hunger and which mother would ever want to keep her babies hungry. End result, mind won and I decided to raid the goat house as quickly as possible and return back to my babies.

Perhaps it was my unfed stomach or the thought of my unfed babies, which led me to throw caution to the winds and rush towards the goat house. Just as I turned the corner of the last house and the goat house loomed ahead, I heard a twig break faintly. Before I could realize what happened a net fell on me ensnaring me within it. I was trapped.

The doors of the houses opened and the villagers started coming out of their houses led by their dogs who started barking at me. I tried with all my might to escape from the all-encompassing net but I couldn't. The villagers maintained a respectable and fearful distance but their respect and fear soon gave way to collective disrespect and fearlessness. A stone was thrown from one among the crowd and hit me on my back. “Cowards”, I roared in pain.  Soon the incoming missiles started raining on me from all sides as the crowd encircled me. A voice from within the crowd shouted at me, “This is the thief trying to steal our goats, let’s punish him.” This insult was too much for me and I roared back at them in anger, “this used to be my home on which you villagers have forcefully encroached upon and now you dare to call me a thief”.

My roar silenced the villagers for a moment, but the attack on me soon resumed even more vigorously. The more I tried to escape from the net that had trapped me, the more I got hopelessly tangled. This emboldened the villagers and the human circle around me became tighter as the villagers now came closer.

Wooden ‘lathis’ materialized out of nowhere and the attack on me continued. In between all these physical blows on my body, the occasional cowardly village dog tried to take a chunk out of me.  The pain and the humiliation of being attacked by puny dogs was too much for me, when I heard someone from within the crowd throw another insult at me, “let us punish this filthy animal by cutting its hands and feet, that ought to be a fitting punishment for a thief trying to steal away our livestock’s”. I was crying out in pain, asking for mercy from all the lacerations on my body. "Oh! Villagers, you are calling me an animal. Why am I an animal? Have I forcefully taken over your land? Have I ever brutally attacked any of you ever? Have I ever talked of chopping your hands and feet even though you have stolen my land, my river and my trees from me.Then why am I an animal." My cries of anguish were falling on deaf years as the pain became unbearable when the villagers finally managed to chop off my hands and feet.

I do not know for how long I had been unconscious, but daylight was creeping in. I was exhausted from blood loss but I was still alive. The net had been removed from on top of me as I lay there bleeding. I was too weak to protest when soon the younger among the villagers slowly crept towards me with small rectangular bricks in their hands. Maybe this was yet another instrument of pain which the villagers would use on me. But no, there were no new blows to me, instead I could see the villagers stood in front of me with  one hand raised holding that rectangular brick which seemed to emit bright flashes like miniature lightening’s.  I heard one of the young villagers speaking, “This ‘selfie’ picture is going to make me a hero in front of my children’s eye when I tell them, it was me who had punished this thief.” Summoning all my last reserves of energy I begged them to allow me to leave as my poor babies were hungry.

My babies must be waking up now from their hunger and lullaby induced sleep. Mummy is coming soon, don't cry my babies. Oh!! What shall I name my twins, who are just six days old? The pain. The darkness. The end.

Authors Note:
I was inspired to write this story after I saw this image on the internet of a Leopard that had been lynched by a mob in a village of Maharastra. I personally believe the price we are going to pay in this battle of supremacy over the riches of Mother Earth will return back to haunt us. Man versus Animal conflict is a reality which we cannot escape from. Hope better judgement prevails in the future and we give back what we have forcibly taken away from other animals.