Humanwatching

This year the same pyjama and jacket on almost the same stature caught my eyes. Just to confirm I dropped a little and took lower flight.

 ‘Yes, he is the same boy!’

 The generous boy, who kept water in the bowl in the park, spent most of his time talking with people and caring the street dogs. He looked leaner and taller, albeit.

Since this was the first time I had recognized someone from my previous migration so I thought to ‘human watch’ him. I perched on the branch and started observing him. My spot on the tree branch gave me a good view of all the houses around.

The park was just in the middle of the gated society with houses all around. It was a place of meetings, gossiping, playing, and giggling. The old would sit on the benches and discuss their glorious past and children would gleefully play hide-and-seek. Ladies were either seen discussing the new trend or their in-laws.

Nonetheless, my target was the boy. I saw that the boy slept late at night, woke up late in the morning and spent most of his time slouched on some machine with wires hanging out his ears. He is not the only teenager I saw bent on the black or silver box, there are many, well… almost all. Humans call this machine as mobile; it made them inert, though.

In the evening he came to the park with water in a bottle and some grains to feed the birds. Later he chatted with his friends about the new girl in their class. Towards late evening when people had already walked their dogs and did their exercise, his eyes caught sight of a lonely and scared puppy. The puppy seemed to be lost.

“Hey, little one, what happened to you? You seem to be lost. Come, come…anh..h.haan. Where are your mom and dad? I have never seen you in this locality earlier. You seem to be recently adopted.”

The generous boy, as I call him, took puppy into his arms and caressed it to calm it down. He started playing with the puppy. The animal could sense the affection and decided to reciprocate the same. The pup playfully kept running around and the boy chased him, without realizing the dark. Everyone had left for their routine work. I could smell the aroma from the various kitchens.

I had been observing the boy and the puppy but it was time for me to take a nap when suddenly I saw some big shadow lurking behind a red vehicle.

I flew a little, I couldn’t believe my eyes..a leopard!!! Not fully grown but it could easily harm anyone.

I had never seen a wild animal in the human inhabitance. This year the boundary between the wild and civil seems to have smudged.

I saw lesser people on the streets this year. The ones who came out had their mouths covered. I had seen seal venturing out on residential streets, and heard deer showing sprints on roads but I could never imagine a leopard here…

I had to save this kind boy and the innocent puppy. I chirruped at the top of my voice but my chirruping was so out of place that I must have been taken for a mad bird. The leopard was inching towards the two. I kept shouting but the boy and the puppy didn’t notice my chirruping.

In a flash, the leopard was on the edge of the rectangular park, where there were fewer trees with few pink myrtles and four margosa trees on four corners but lots of bougainvillaeas and hedge bushes.

The boy searching the puppy was closing in and the leopard was on his haunches to attack whoever may come to it. The boy saw the shining eyes and spread his arms to reach the puppy when he heard baying sound of the puppy from behind. The boy turned and took it on his arms.

The shining eyes came out of the bush. In the dim light, the boy could judge that it was not a mere cat or a street dog but something bigger, something dangerous. If he or the dog moved a muscle, the ‘big silhouette’ had devoured them. The boy froze to the ground. The leopard circled the couple at a distance and stood near the bush to stamp its hegemony.

From the near branch, I could see the terrified boy. The boy had clutched the puppy. The warmth of each other’s body gave them the courage to stand in front of the animal.

A few moments passed but to the boy, it must have seemed eternity. He finally got down on the ground. The leopard observing his movement gave a growl. The boy froze still again. One knee near his chin and other on the ground, he slowly loosens his grip on the puppy.

The sharp eyes of the leopard observed each twitch in the ligaments. His arms extended bit by bit towards the ground and he put the puppy on the ground inchmeal. His arms still extended, one hand under the tummy and other above the back fur, he remained in this posture for some time to show the leopard that he meant no harm.

I was astonished to see the sight. ‘Why did the generous boy keep the dog on the ground? He couldn’t be offering it to the leopard! That’s sure a wild thought of my brain. That’s not possible.’

And soon my horror turned into a reality. I could see the gesture and movements of the boy. The boy kept the puppy down and his apparently caring hands were actually pushing it towards the leopard. The boy had decided to trade the puppy’s life for saving his own life.

Suddenly there was a cage around the leopard. The glaring lights blinded him and the earsplitting horns seized his other sense too. The shocked leopard squirmed a little and gave a deep growl, but the humans had overpowered him. It had to pay the price of sneaking into their territory.

The hands and arm still in the same position, the boy was stunned. When his mother caressed and hugged him, he came to his senses. “Thank god you are safe! Thanks to the passersby who reported about the leopard in our locality. I would have lost you if we were late by a second.”

The boy took a sigh.

There were promptings around him.

‘Oh! He is so brave.’

‘His mother must be proud of him.’

‘Ya, I have seen him taking care of street dogs.’

‘He didn’t leave the puppy’s side.’

A lady rushed and almost snatched the puppy from his hands. “Thank you so much for saving my baby! I have no words to show my gratitude towards your bravery. Thank you, thank you, thank you so so much…”

The boy gave a faint smile. “Oh! Please don’t mention it. It was all I could do. How could I leave a puppy in front of that ferocious leopard?”

I couldn’t believe my ears. A few moments back, the boy was offering the innocent puppy to the leopard and now he is being applauded for his bravery of saving the same puppy! And the boy was basking in the glory unabashed of his deed!

I didn’t want to watch humans anymore.