That night the elephants came exactly at 2.00 am.
The little devils, in guise of my daughters, had finally fallen into the clutches of deep slumber at around 12.00 midnight after an hour of story-telling and lullabies. The sweetness of silence, that ensued, swathed and comforted me. Though tired, sleep eluded me; it always came late to me here at Xonarigaon. I wanted to soak in as much of the serenity as I could, to take back with me to the never-ending, buzzing humdrum of Guwahati.
I picked up a book, more out of habit than an intention to read and went out to the balcony.
The swing with its plush red cushions beckoned me and I curled up within its luxuriousness and opened the book, the light from the stained glass lamps hanging on the eaves of the balcony and the rays from the full moon aiding me and also setting up a perfect ambience to read a Wilbur Smith novel. It was one I loved and must have read an umpteenth time, but i never tired of it. Soon I was absorbed in the tale of the wilderness of Africa, the lions, the elephant hunts, sizzling sex and horrific tortures. I must have been reading for around an hour, when, suddenly a sound, small but sharp and seeming to come from a distance, brought me back to my balcony. Earlier in the day, the locals were discussing with my hubby, about a herd of elephants foraging about in the paddy fields of Xonarigaon. Sensitized by these warnings, combined with Smith's description of the elephant hunt I was so engrossed in at that moment, I became alert. Leaving the comfort of the soft cushions, I got up and leaned against the rails of the balcony. I strained my ears for more sounds and looked around apprehensively for a sight of the beasts so lovingly written about by Smith. But only the silence, abuzz with the night sound of crickets and fireflies, an occasional hoot of the owl and bark of a pariah dog greeted me.
The clear night sky was lit up by hundreds of bright twinkling stars, a sight rarely seen in the smog covered city skies. The lawns and flowerbeds outside was alight like the heavens above with the fireflies. Mesmerised by the beauty of the night, I forgot about the cushions and the book. I leaned against the rails and breathed in the pungent smell of the bamboos drifting in with the slight breeze from the bamboo grove across the road, opposite our balcony. I felt a deep calm flow down my veins, relaxing the taut muscles and strained brain. I closed my eyes and let the moonlight and the cool breeze and the night sounds envelop me within their soothing embrace. A few blissful minutes later, I heard the door behind me open and then shut with a soft click. Hubby had satisfied his curiosity about the events of the day across the globe.I did not look back. On any given day, he would have left me to my musings and gone to bed, bidding me goodnight, and would have fallen asleep immediately. But the magical nights of Xonarigaon had rekindled some of the romance of our early married life. A sigh escaped involuntarily as he came and stood beside me and I shivered with long forgotten pleasure as his long arms encircled my ample waist. I leaned against him, my head finding its perfect position on his wide chest and i could hear his steady heart beat. It had been a long time since we basked in each others company. We were busy and distanced by our own worlds and duties, but always drawing comfort in knowing that we were still close to each other in our thoughts.
The gentle breeze caressed us as we stood there for what seemed like an eternity, still and silent, looking out into the dark woods opposite our home, not needing to say a word, letting the sounds of the night do all the talking.
Suddenly, a short, sharp burst of sound split apart the silence of the night and shook us out of our complacent mood. It was the same sound which had brought me out to the balcony rails a little while ago.
"Elephants nearby", hubby whispered. He did not seem as intrigued as me about the sound. Being born and growing up in these wondrous lands, it seemed normal for him. He understood the voices of the nights well.
"How do you know? And what was that sound"? I asked excitedly. Being a city girl I took the sound to be that of a fire-cracker at some wedding.
"That's the sound of a shot from a rifle. A forest guard fires these to keep away the elephants from the inhabited areas and also to warn us about their presence", hubby explained patiently.
As we looked on, scrutinizing our surroundings, the bamboo grove opposite us started swaying. I was so excited I could hardly restrain my anticipation. I felt hubby squeeze me gently, as if reassuringly, and remove his arms from around me. Disappointed, I looked up at him in askance and saw him bow down his head reverentially and fold his hand in Namaskar. We had seen an elephant many a time; as slaves of the humans in the city; playing tricks in circuses during our childhood and even the wild ones while on trips to Kaziranga. As for hubby, he had grown up in this place, which was close to Kaziranga, and had told me many a tale of the trips these pachyderms made to the villages in search of food. So it amazed me to see an expression of utmost reverence and humbleness etched upon his proud face which i was witnessing for the first time in our 20 years of married life. I turned towards the bamboo grove and a split second later I had my first glimpse of this mighty animal.
I saw the tusks first as the light from the full moon fell and glinted off it making it shine like an effervescent pearl. They were thick, almost the size of my little one's wrist and so long that they almost touched the earth below it. The bearer of such tusks must definitely be an octogenarian and the leader of the herd. The tusks speared out from the side of the grove bearing a huge grey blurry mass upon it which, an instant later materialized into its magnificent, majestic form. Though Wilbur Smith had already familiarized me with the feeling generated by the sight of this mighty creature of the wild yet I was left stunned by the force of feeling that engulfed me on seeing this beautiful beast so close to me. He commandeered reverence to from us mere humans and I too felt myself bowing down in utmost humility to his magnificence. Slowly, but with a grace that would put the best supermodel to shame, the old bull emerged from out of the woods and crossed the road towards our side. Five more, slightly smaller, but definitely no less magnificent, ambled out of the woods and followed him as he traversed the length of our boundary wall. My heart seemed to have stopped beating for an instant as the bull and his entourage stopped at our gate and peered inside it. But then they continued ambling towards the west and stepping on to a small lane on the left leading towards the paddy fields behind our homestead disappeared into the early morning mist.
The whole sighting must have taken only a couple of minutes, for though the herd moved graciously and steadily, they were by no means slow and during this entire period I had held my breath which now came out in a huge sigh. I heard hubby too sigh heavily beside me and we looked at each other and smiled happily. It seemed the magical moment was created solely for our pleasure, a moment which we will cherish together forever, a moment which will bind us together for the rest of our lives.
The little devils, in guise of my daughters, had finally fallen into the clutches of deep slumber at around 12.00 midnight after an hour of story-telling and lullabies. The sweetness of silence, that ensued, swathed and comforted me. Though tired, sleep eluded me; it always came late to me here at Xonarigaon. I wanted to soak in as much of the serenity as I could, to take back with me to the never-ending, buzzing humdrum of Guwahati.
I picked up a book, more out of habit than an intention to read and went out to the balcony.
The swing with its plush red cushions beckoned me and I curled up within its luxuriousness and opened the book, the light from the stained glass lamps hanging on the eaves of the balcony and the rays from the full moon aiding me and also setting up a perfect ambience to read a Wilbur Smith novel. It was one I loved and must have read an umpteenth time, but i never tired of it. Soon I was absorbed in the tale of the wilderness of Africa, the lions, the elephant hunts, sizzling sex and horrific tortures. I must have been reading for around an hour, when, suddenly a sound, small but sharp and seeming to come from a distance, brought me back to my balcony. Earlier in the day, the locals were discussing with my hubby, about a herd of elephants foraging about in the paddy fields of Xonarigaon. Sensitized by these warnings, combined with Smith's description of the elephant hunt I was so engrossed in at that moment, I became alert. Leaving the comfort of the soft cushions, I got up and leaned against the rails of the balcony. I strained my ears for more sounds and looked around apprehensively for a sight of the beasts so lovingly written about by Smith. But only the silence, abuzz with the night sound of crickets and fireflies, an occasional hoot of the owl and bark of a pariah dog greeted me.
The clear night sky was lit up by hundreds of bright twinkling stars, a sight rarely seen in the smog covered city skies. The lawns and flowerbeds outside was alight like the heavens above with the fireflies. Mesmerised by the beauty of the night, I forgot about the cushions and the book. I leaned against the rails and breathed in the pungent smell of the bamboos drifting in with the slight breeze from the bamboo grove across the road, opposite our balcony. I felt a deep calm flow down my veins, relaxing the taut muscles and strained brain. I closed my eyes and let the moonlight and the cool breeze and the night sounds envelop me within their soothing embrace. A few blissful minutes later, I heard the door behind me open and then shut with a soft click. Hubby had satisfied his curiosity about the events of the day across the globe.I did not look back. On any given day, he would have left me to my musings and gone to bed, bidding me goodnight, and would have fallen asleep immediately. But the magical nights of Xonarigaon had rekindled some of the romance of our early married life. A sigh escaped involuntarily as he came and stood beside me and I shivered with long forgotten pleasure as his long arms encircled my ample waist. I leaned against him, my head finding its perfect position on his wide chest and i could hear his steady heart beat. It had been a long time since we basked in each others company. We were busy and distanced by our own worlds and duties, but always drawing comfort in knowing that we were still close to each other in our thoughts.
The gentle breeze caressed us as we stood there for what seemed like an eternity, still and silent, looking out into the dark woods opposite our home, not needing to say a word, letting the sounds of the night do all the talking.
Suddenly, a short, sharp burst of sound split apart the silence of the night and shook us out of our complacent mood. It was the same sound which had brought me out to the balcony rails a little while ago.
"Elephants nearby", hubby whispered. He did not seem as intrigued as me about the sound. Being born and growing up in these wondrous lands, it seemed normal for him. He understood the voices of the nights well.
"How do you know? And what was that sound"? I asked excitedly. Being a city girl I took the sound to be that of a fire-cracker at some wedding.
"That's the sound of a shot from a rifle. A forest guard fires these to keep away the elephants from the inhabited areas and also to warn us about their presence", hubby explained patiently.
As we looked on, scrutinizing our surroundings, the bamboo grove opposite us started swaying. I was so excited I could hardly restrain my anticipation. I felt hubby squeeze me gently, as if reassuringly, and remove his arms from around me. Disappointed, I looked up at him in askance and saw him bow down his head reverentially and fold his hand in Namaskar. We had seen an elephant many a time; as slaves of the humans in the city; playing tricks in circuses during our childhood and even the wild ones while on trips to Kaziranga. As for hubby, he had grown up in this place, which was close to Kaziranga, and had told me many a tale of the trips these pachyderms made to the villages in search of food. So it amazed me to see an expression of utmost reverence and humbleness etched upon his proud face which i was witnessing for the first time in our 20 years of married life. I turned towards the bamboo grove and a split second later I had my first glimpse of this mighty animal.
I saw the tusks first as the light from the full moon fell and glinted off it making it shine like an effervescent pearl. They were thick, almost the size of my little one's wrist and so long that they almost touched the earth below it. The bearer of such tusks must definitely be an octogenarian and the leader of the herd. The tusks speared out from the side of the grove bearing a huge grey blurry mass upon it which, an instant later materialized into its magnificent, majestic form. Though Wilbur Smith had already familiarized me with the feeling generated by the sight of this mighty creature of the wild yet I was left stunned by the force of feeling that engulfed me on seeing this beautiful beast so close to me. He commandeered reverence to from us mere humans and I too felt myself bowing down in utmost humility to his magnificence. Slowly, but with a grace that would put the best supermodel to shame, the old bull emerged from out of the woods and crossed the road towards our side. Five more, slightly smaller, but definitely no less magnificent, ambled out of the woods and followed him as he traversed the length of our boundary wall. My heart seemed to have stopped beating for an instant as the bull and his entourage stopped at our gate and peered inside it. But then they continued ambling towards the west and stepping on to a small lane on the left leading towards the paddy fields behind our homestead disappeared into the early morning mist.
The whole sighting must have taken only a couple of minutes, for though the herd moved graciously and steadily, they were by no means slow and during this entire period I had held my breath which now came out in a huge sigh. I heard hubby too sigh heavily beside me and we looked at each other and smiled happily. It seemed the magical moment was created solely for our pleasure, a moment which we will cherish together forever, a moment which will bind us together for the rest of our lives.
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