The mongoose was found sitting petrified in the car park of chez The Man from Madras Musings. A car was covering it from closer inspection. Hearing some commotion, MMM decided to come down from the lofty thoughts of MM and focus on the mundane. Many voices offered to help and after sifting through the evidence MMM got to know the following –The mongoose had been seen going around the garden and even then appeared to be in some pain. It had crawled under the car and after that had ceased to move though it was alive as could be seen from its frightened eyes.
If a mongoose was wandering around it meant a snake, or snakes, were not far away. The question was, what was to be done with the mongoose. There was a growing body of opinion (driver, cook, maid, watchman, neighbour’s, drivers, cooks, maids, watchmen, etc.) that the animal ought to be done to death, though why, MMM could not fathom. Someone said it would act as a deterrent to other animals. The answering chorus reinforced this, and a broad consensus was reached, unlike in the Houses of Parliament, that this was a locality where there were too many animals anyway – squirrels, parakeets, bats, frogs, toads, cats, dogs, crows, eagles, and now mongoose and possibly snakes.
Mongoose and the Blue Cross Decision
MMM’s maid led the chorus stating that living with such animals was an impossibility. Considering that she is a true representative of the cow belt, MMM was reasonably sure that back home her family led a life similar to the late Old MacDonald but here in Madras that is Chennai she had put on airs. MMM declared that the matter was best handed over to Blue Cross. There was a stunned silence and thereafter some muffled grumbling about misplaced kindness, etc. but MMM had his way. The volunteers of that body arrived and took away the mongoose. They later called to say it seemed to be in some shock but was stable. When it recovered they wanted to know if it could be brought back to chez MMM. To this MMM agreed at once.
Mongoose and the Neighbourhood Reaction
When this news broke there were protests galore. Having a mongoose resident in the garden would be a hazard as it could bite people said someone. MMM asked as to how many mongoose bites had the man seen and to this there was sullen silence. He then went on to explain that unlike us humans, mongooses do not recognise compound walls as boundaries and will wander around at will. So we would not be put to any trouble.
The driver, whose ambition it has been to cut the sole tree in MMM’s garden as birds roost on it and commit nuisance on the car, then piped up. In that case he said, the entire neighbourhood would be at risk. To this MMM countered that that risk could not be more than dangers caused by bad driving.
Mongoose and the Inevitable End
The mongoose solved all matters anyway by dying the next day despite the best treatment. It had died due to internal causes. And so peace returned though much of the resident population would like to see all the animals exterminated. MMM wonders as to what would happen if the animals got the same idea. The problem is loss of habitat and a cussed view that all specimens of animal life other than humans are a nuisance we can do without.
This article appeared in Madras Musings–https://madrasmusings.com/vol-35-no-21/short-n-snappy-238/
My book, Chennai, A Biography can be ordered-https://sriramv.com/2021/12/27/how-to-buy-autographed-copies-of-chennai-a-biography-from-outstation/20.ece
Nice hilarious article. Good sense prevailed. But poor mongoose. A simple question – have we, humans (two legged animals with sixth sense) become more cruel than ………….. God only knows!.