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Ganesh’s Envy Of Elephant

“E”-for Elephant—GANESH of hardly 4 years old faithfully recited in his daddy SIVA’S Sunday coaching for his adoring son. Abruptly the child abandoned the class, but returned swiftly with a clay doll of the elephant and started comparing with the picture of the elephant as found in that book. By intuition and experience the father had realized that there won’t be any further class on that day. He was sure that his over zealous son had series of questions about this animal and was wondering whether he was capable to answer all his genuine queries. It is but natural that children of Ganesh’s age were inquisitive about anything and every thing they see around. Only difference is this particular kid was showing special interest in birds and animals that he comes across while going to school or anywhere else. He was not even afraid of cockroaches roaming around the kitchen and used to spend hours in watching their movements. Only last year he had been to CHENNAI to his uncle’s house and even today vividly remembers his visit to the zoo. He was particularly fascinated by the elephant for its gigantic size and its priceless, important and versatile appendage known as TRUNK. Repeatedly he was rejoicing over the scene of the long and flexible trunk accepting his banana and gracefully blessing him over his head. When the finger like projection at the tip of the trunk touched his head delicately its chilly and cold feeling was thrilling.

As Mr. Siva correctly guessed, that over smart child started throwing varieties of questions about elephant that would turn even a seasoned quiz master in to shame. Father was taken aback by the sudden onslaught over his general knowledge or lack of it and he excused himself for that day with the promise to answer all his questions after a visit to a nearby library. He was sure that any thing answered by guess, bluffing or imagination might have serious repercussions in the mental development of the child. It was but natural that SIVA was confident that the ambitions of his dear son to know all about elephant was short lived and his visit to the library might at least be postponed. But this little boy GANESH was of different stuff to forget so quickly. He reminded his daddy that the time had come to visit library as it was nearing 5 pm and even thrusted his spare book with a pencil that the only alternative was to march to the nearby library.

After a little effort Mr. Siva could fish out a book on “All about Elephants” with diagrams and illustrations. By going through the leaves he was inspired himself to learn many things about Elephants and started jotting the salient features. It was already late in the night when Siva returned home, but contrary to his belief his son Ganesh was still awake expecting his father. In spite of his repeated pleadings, his son was adamant to know all about elephants on the same day. Here are the excerpts that even educated people may not be aware that was the outcome of dialogues between father and son that comprises of answers to the queries and also information given by the responsible dad.

Elephant’s family is known as pachydermatous thanks to its 2 inches thickness of skin that poachers need special bullets to penetrate the skin. Also no animal can stuck their teeth down its skin. It is the largest of any land animal in size and also weight. Standing about 10 feet tall and weighing nearly 11,000 pounds it can only walk, but nearly 30km per hour. Even the new born calf weighs 260 pounds. The specialty of elephant is its long trunk which is a fusion of nose and upper lip elongated. The finger like projection at the tip of the trunk is sensitive enough to pick up a single grass blade and powerful enough to rip the branches of a tree. The whole muscular trunk can rap up around a tree or its big branch and shakes its food loose or sometimes simply knock the tree down altogether. There are about 40.000 muscles in the trunk that coordinate as per the demand. Its trunk is used for drinking, suck 14 liters of water and blow it in to their mouth. They also inhale water to spray it on their body during bathing. It can also spray dirt and mud which acts as a protective sun screen. While swimming the trunk makes an excellent snorkel. Highly developed sense of smell by raising the trunk up in the air and swiveling it from side to side like a periscope, it can determine the location of friends, enemies and food sources. Over and above elephants are very intelligent and also gifted with sharp memory. The most priceless part of an elephant is its pair of tuskers for male only. It grows more than 10 feet long and weigh 90 kg each. They are used by them for digging at the roots, ripping the bark from the trees and also fighting. The poachers are hunting the elephants as the ivory of the tusker is very costly for usage as precious artifacts and also medicines. Elephants give signals by its trumpet calls when it blows through its nostrils by raising its trunk above. All the above facts are about Asian elephants that are gray colored and the larger and powerful elephants are African elephants.

The young boy GANESH went to bed late in the night on that day and was envious of elephant’s large trunk that serves as an extra hand that is not only powerful but can be maneuvered from a distance with enough flexibility. If only GOD has given a long trunk he can pluck mangoes from the neighbor’s garden or at least remove the biscuits and other edibles that his mother had kept at the top of the shelf. He was dreaming endlessly through out the night about the gift of trunk to the elephant. But his prayers were conceded by LORD GANESH and all on a sudden he noticed a small projection growing between his nose and upper lip and every day it was growing rapidly that with in a week he found a long trunk in front of him. He became jubilant and started boasting with his friends and neighbors about his spare hand with which he could do innumerable things that even elders cannot do. Now a days he is not taking water bottle not only for him but also helping his close friends with the water stored in his trunk. He could help his mother to fetch water from the near by tank freely with out carrying any vessels. He could wash the house by spraying water and in the school teacher used his services for removing heavy furniture from room to room. The teacher requested him to blow his trumpet for opening and closure of the school instead of ringing the bell. Slowly the news reached around the city about a little boy with a trunk and many also believed he was the reincarnation of the original God GANESH Himself. But unfortunately his freedom was restricted as he was worshipped and adored at odd times and the charm of enjoying life with his special ability was thoroughly destroyed. The news of this strange looking boy reached even outside world that one day a gang of professional idol thieves slipped in to that town and also in to his house one day and tried to chain and bondage for exporting and selling for huge amount. They threw the rope around him when he rolled and fell with a big cry. His parents became nervous and rushed to his room and found their dear son had fallen from the cot and the blanket had coiled him like a rope. To his great relief the boy Ganesh realized that all was a dream and only happy that he was back as a normal boy. He explained every thing to his parents about his brief adventure, but in the dream. His father explained that every animal or even creature is having a special gift from God that humans are not possessing. But the greatest of all gifts for a human being is his sixth sense that clearly outweighs all the special talents of birds, insects, animals and also fish. At that tender age GANESH could not understand anything about that sixth sense-but was assured by his dad to convince him at the appropriate age.

BY J.PANCHAPAGESAN FLAT-11,130 GILL NAGAR EXTN STREET CHOOLAIMEDU CHENNAI PH-044 23744963 EMAIL id- jpanchapagesan@yahoo.co.in