Page 115 - Musings 2021

which Rajiv provided daily. Even when its hormones were in full rage during the musth
period, Keshavan was cautious around Rajiv. The elephant, for the first time, grew fond of a
human. Although Menon grew jealous of how close Rajiv got with his elephant, he was
relieved to see that Keshavan was finally trusting someone.

*************

Two years had passed since Rajiv took over. Under the caring training of Rajiv, Keshavan
was calm during fireworks. Any hesitation it had was cleared with Rajiv’s calming presence
beside it. Rajiv’s popularity also grew amongst the locals and he had a fan following of his
own.

Keshavan’s fame grew beyond Aarattupuzha and Menon got many requests to purchase
Keshavan. Since money was the last thing Menon wanted, he was reluctant to send Keshavan
away. He also intended to redeem himself after Keshavan’s disastrous debut and was
planning on reintroducing him to the festival.

As Menon planned, the next festival at Aarattupuzha Temple included a royal escort for the
deity upon Keshavan. The onlookers were frozen at the majestic decorated elephant as the
procession passed by the roads towards the temple grounds. The festival was in full swing
with Keshavan as the center of attention, apart from the deity of course.

As the festival was drawing to a close the following day after a marathon of events, the public
was slowly clearing out the wide-open paddy fields surrounding the temple on which the
festival was being held. Dawn had just broken and there was a cool breeze blowing across the
fields. The dew made the dust settle down and the air was extremely fresh. The sounds of
cows mooing in the distance were drowned in the rhythmic beats of a musical performance.
The musicians were approaching their limit and their 4-hour performance of ‘Pandi melam’
was reaching its climax and the remaining audience was in a trance with their bodies
naturally moving to the beats.

Suddenly a drowsy temple employee holding a huge fire lamp collapsed. The dried paddy
husk left on the field after the harvesting season immediately caught fire and startled all the
elephants gathered at the festival.

Keshavan was the closest to the fire and lost all its composure which was built slowly over
two years. When fire sparks started flying towards the elephant’s eyes, Keshavan started to
flop around in pain and discomfort. Unfortunately, its sturdy trunk caught Rajiv flush in his
gut while he made a frantic attempt to calm down the poor animal. The blow winded him and
it sent him flying backward. Despite his tough physique, Rajiv felt a couple of his ribs crack
under the blow. He also hit his head while landing and felt concussed for a while before
passing out.

As his senses returned, Rajiv woke up in a cloud of smoke. The pungent odor of burning
paddy was burning his nostrils and throat and he couldn’t see anything beyond two feet. He
was amazed to find himself without any major burns. He could hear the villagers rushing
towards the burning edges with buckets of water in a frantic attempt to put out the fire. As the
smoke slowly cleared away people began to calm down. However, he couldn’t see Keshavan.

Like a mother who lost her child, Rajiv was frantically looking around to find Keshavan. His
instincts told him that the elephant probably ran off towards the Aarattupuzha river to cool

115