I first met Fernandez when I was in high school. Those were the days before India’s independence. He was in the hospitality industry but had a deep interest in wild-life. He was born and brought up in a small town called Ramnagar near Nainital and had a craze for safaris and winter sports. I, being of an impressionable age, dreamt of following in his footsteps as I belonged to the same mountain town. We school boys loved to hear adventure stories and Fernandez was an inexhaustible source to quench our fantasy. Of course, we believed and enjoyed each and every word of his though at times he seemed to go overboard in dramatizing his stories.
One day we boys were passing in front of his farm house when we noticed him busy cleaning his rifle. We sneaked in and after exchanging pleasantries, demanded that he entertain us with some jungle lore. He remained silent for some time, still cleaning his gun. While we waited, we saw in awe the animal heads displayed all over the house. He had quite a rich collection! Finally he looked at us, smiled and said that it was a long story. We were eager to hear his story and so said in a chorus, “We have the time, go ahead uncle!”
His story went like this:
“A few years ago, when I was in college, my friend Abott came to our place from a big town to stay with us for a few weeks. My father was a nature lover and used to bring animals in distress to our farm house which had an expansive open ground. Of course, he used to take permission from the forest department. When Abott came to stay with us we had a 6 month old tiger cub at our farm named Babur. Abott was initially scared of the animal but soon he got bold and started playing with Babur. Strangely, Abott had a cruel streak in him and used to mistreat Babur much to his discomfiture. He used to poke sticks at the cub, at times throwing things at him and the like. The cub used to snarl and growl in anger. I tried to refrain Abott from doing these antics which harmed Babur but to no avail. Anyway, thankfully Abott left after his vacation and Babur got some respite.
A year passed by and the cub grew into a handsome animal. It was time for him to find his place in the wild and plans were made to release him into the jungle. Some sort of training in hunting was imparted to Babur and one day my dad went with the forest officials and left him in the forest to fend for himself in the wild world.
“A few years later, Abott again came to visit us. He was disappointed not to see Babur with us but at least he got some entertainment playing with a young blackbuck which had found its way into our farm. One day he requested me to take him for a safari in the jungle where we had left Babur. My father allowed us to go in his open Jeep but with a lot of conditions lest we got stuck in the thick jungle or got harmed by the animals.
“So off we went very excited, anticipating a fun filled trip to the wild. We saw a lot of animals like wild buffaloes, antelope, elephants and the like but we were anxiously looking for a tiger. It was an hour to dusk when we saw some movements in the far away bush accompanied by warning sounds from the birds and monkeys. We waited with bated breath. Then we saw a tiger emerge into full view. What a handsome fellow! And then I noticed from the marks on his face that it was none other than Babur! On seeing us he gave a sharp growl and approached us as if for inspection! Then suddenly Babur came rushing towards us and leaped on to our open Jeep. In a flash he was upon Abott and badly mauled him with his sharp claws and teeth. After imparting maximum damage, Babur disappeared into the jungle, leaving us shocked to the core! I managed to stop the bleeding from Abott’s arms and torso temporarily and rushed him to a hospital. Poor, Abott! He won’t be able to walk for years to come because of his spine injury. Moral of the story: Be kind to animals. Be a good guy! Animals don’t forget easily the torture they have been subjected to in the past!”
We were obviously shocked too on hearing this account of their jungle safari. We again admired Fernandez’s bravery in the whole episode. We thought Abott got his due for subjecting Babur to humiliation. But we also felt sorry for him and wished him an early recovery.
A couple of years passed by as I got busy with my college education. I had lost touch with Fernandez and missed his narrations. Then I got an urgent message from his father to come over as Fernandez had met with an accident.
I made a dash for the local hospital in which he was admitted. There he was, lying in the hospital emergency ward, all wrapped up in bandages and with tubes connecting him to machines. It was a sorry sight and naturally I felt devastated. I held back my tears with difficulty. Fernandez kept mumbling because of the pain. After some time he calmed down a bit and I could see that he had recognised me and wanted to say something but words failed him. It seemed he had a very important message to tell me. He had a painful expression on his face as if he had some guilty feeling hidden within him. He made a few more attempts and finally blurted, “Sorry……I. …I just wanted to tell you I ….. Yesterday, Babur got me!….ohhh it hurts” and he grimaced in pain. Then he lost consciousness.
I tried to make sense of what he had said but was completely perplexed and baffled. Then I noticed a man standing silently beside Fernandez’s bed. Thinking that maybe he could throw some light on the matter, I introduced myself and we both went outside. The man said that he had gone for the first time in his life on a safari with Fernandez on the previous day. At the end of the day they saw this tiger which suddenly leaped on the Jeep and mauled Fernandez badly.
We both remained silent for a long time and then the man said he wondered whether the tiger remembered the bad treatment it got from Fernandez when it was a cub!
My mind was now in a tizzy as I realized suddenly that the man I was talking to was none other than Abott, the good guy!