And so the tigress is back in her cage. And all’s well in Vandalur.
All of which reminds MMM of the time when he was a Cherubic Child of Calcutta. A circus had come to town and one morning, the camel in the menagerie decided to take a tour of the city. Her disappearance was quickly noticed and for reasons best known to the circus management, a rescue party set off on an elephant to get the camel back. If you knew Calcutta as well as MMM does, you would know that such a decision would be considered a very practical one there, it is something in the air that makes you feel that way. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the elephant and its riders soon managed to catch up with the dromedary. All should have been well had not the tusker, whether out of joy or relief or whatever else it was, trumpeted loudly, thereby terrifying the camel which shot off like a bullet from a gun. The rescue party had to follow in pursuit. All traffic came to a complete halt till the two animals met up once more. MMM is unable to recollect now, but he does vaguely think that schools declared a holiday. Or was that when the skylab fell unexpectedly from the sky? Calcutta was like that, full of unexpected developments.
Chennai, on the other hand, appeared to take the missing tigress in its stride. Perhaps our citizens felt that she would eventually go back home. But what transpired in between is what is intriguing MMM. Where exactly did the tigress go? What did she see? It is MMM’s considered view that these were some of the places that she went to before deciding that the Zoo was the best place for a wild animal to be in – the metrorail works, the Kodambakkam flyover at peak traffic time, a political meeting or two and, of course, T Nagar’s shopping area. These creatures are easily intimidated, at least that is what MMM is given to understand.