Hello Everyone! Missed my blogs?
No worries. Recently, I participated in this competition where I was asked to write a blog with three words - Old Woman, Coffee, and A group of friends. As soon as I heard Old Woman, I immediately thought about Bellie, the charming and lovable old lady from the Oscar Winning movie "The Elephant Whisperers". Then as I typed, the fictional story that unfurled is as below.
It was late evening; my friends and I were shivering from the threatening cold. We were on the way to Mudumalai – a reserve forest in south India. Amid the wintery air, beneath the noble starry black, we observe the beauty of the moon. She graces Earth's sky to glow equally for all. The ride was going smoothly when all of a sudden, our car broke down.
We were told that we have to wait for an hour or two before our car was back in working condition. We were stuck in the middle of the forest; I was afraid for no vehicles were coming down our way. All the pleasantness of the night suddenly vanished. Our pleasant feelings were being replaced with exasperation, fear, and guilt.
As we were looking around, something huge that was moving caught our eyes. Instinctively, we switched on the flashlight on our mobile. To our shock, we saw an elephant steadily moving toward a woman. We all ran together to tell her about the on-coming elephant. Hearing our shrieks, she turned around. The minute I saw her face, I knew the elephant wouldn’t hurt her.
I stopped my friends. My friends questioned, “Why are you stopping us? The elephant is going to hurt her!” I replied, “That’s Bellie - The Elephant Whisperer!” Bellie, with her huge smile, asked us in Tamil “What are you doing here in the middle of the forest?”. As I knew Tamil, I told her that our car had broken down and we were waiting for the same to be repaired.
Bellie said, “You all could stay in her house if needed.” I translated the same to my friends. They agreed because we were all tired because of traveling since morning. We headed to her house. As we started walking, I asked her “Is that Ammukutty or Raghu?” and “Where is Bomman?”. Just as I finished speaking, I heard a familiar voice from the movie.
I turned to the direction from which the voice was coming. I could see Bomman coming up with the hill. Ammukutty was also coming along with him. I recognized her from the plaits that she was beautified with. Bomman asked “Who are they?” and Bellie replied, “Their car had broken down. They don’t have a place to stay for the night. I have asked them to stay at our house.”
While Bellie and Bomman were cooking dinner, my friends wanted me to summarize the movie. I told them “The Elephant Whisperers tells the story of a couple named Bomman and Bellie who are entrusted with an orphaned baby Indian elephant named Raghu. They spent a lot of time ensuring that the fragile, injured infant survives and grows to be a healthy elephant. A strong bond develops between the couple and the elephant.”
Bomman overheard me talking about Raghu. He inquired with a worried face “What are talking about Raghu?”. I assured him “No need to worry, Bomman sir! My friends haven’t watched the documentary of the Elephant Whisperers. They are not aware of the story. I was just explaining the documentary to them.” I continue telling the story.
I see an old woman with a hot cup of coffee in her hand, calling out my name. I turn towards the voice and I realize it was my grandmother. And then I realized, it was all a dream, courtesy of the Oscar award-winning documentary, The Elephant Whispers that I had watched before I hit the bed yesterday night. I drank the coffee and was in front of the TV for a rerun of that wonderfully written and shot documentary.
I hope you were able to visualize my story and had a great time reading it. Well, I got to go and check if I won the prize. I am having my fingers crossed. I will let you all know in the next blog. Till then, HAPPY READING!