ONE of my friends in Nagpur adopted a baby tortoise as a talismanic icon. He said, in Chinese Feng Shui or Indian Vastu, having a tortoise in the house is a good portent. It brings good health, wealth and long life to the members. The baby tortoise got easily mingled with the family. It used to roam freely within the house in four tiny legs and consumed any food served - starting from vegetable peels, steamed rice to even pieces of puffed rice. When the Kurmavtar nibbled the food from the palm popping out its small head, the friend used to look at it as an adorable kid.

It became a perfect playmate of the friend’s little daughter. They developed such a close bonding that the daughter used to cry and the tortoise be restive in the absence of one another. In this way, the baby tortoise was growing up and one day, the friend noticed that the hatchling had become a full-grown tortoise to live on its own. He put it carefully in the water of their 30 feet deep well. The tortoise appeared to be thrilled getting the natural habitat. It started swimming merrily in the water and devoured all mosses, insects and mosquito eggs from the well other than the food supplied by my friend. Because of its presence, water of the well turned crystal clear. A spoon once fallen in the water was now clearly visible lying at the bed of the well! After returning home at the end of the day, my friend used to visit the pet inside the well. The animal also got habituated with the routine. It would come up with small gargles to mark its presence and then swim down deep into the water. Its pastime was to dig the base of the well with all four limbs throughout the day. As a result, when all nearby wells turned dry in peak summer, there would be sufficient water in my friend’s reservoir. Each day of the small family was thus a celebration, having the four-legged reptile as an additional member.

One evening, however, the friend was a bit surprised when he went to feed the pet. The tortoise was already floating in water and did not go down after the visit! The friend thought the pet might be sulking for some unknown reasons. He routinely tossed the food inside and came back. But when the pet was found floating in same condition the next morning, serious doubts raised in his mind. He fished out the pet from water and was rudely shocked to discover that there was no life in the body of the Kurmavtar! His daughter cried inconsolably; the friend himself got upset at the heartbreaking incident. He concluded that the tortoise must have died in desolation without getting a life partner. With a heavy heart, he buried the darling reptile in one corner of their courtyard.

It must be a coincidence that within two days of the incident, the old Maruti car of the friend was surprisingly stolen from outside his gate and in the ensuing weeks, he suffered unexpected losses in his flourishing business. That made my friend superstitious. He thought that the death of the tortoise must have cast an evil spell over the family. He is now desperately searching for a pair of baby tortoises for adoption so that all ill omens can be blown away from the house!