BY DR SANJAY KOLTE 

 

 

AMIDST the clutter of violence, rape, accidents and terrorism a news on the front page of a daily caught my attention and amazed me on the morning of a friendship day, while the fragrance of friendship messages wafted through social media. The story read - A canine, on being chased by a panther finds respite in a toilet, only to have its predator follow him in and both subsequently being locked in by the owner who woke up to the distress cries of his dog. On seeing them both enter the toilet, all he could think of was to lock the door from outside, till more sense in him and more help to contain further damages, could be gathered. All due contingencies were arranged, forest officials arrived with tranquillising guns and cages to fetch the feline back to the jungle. Cautiously, as the door was opened, the leopard leapt out with lightning speed and vanished before anyone could realise. The dog too walked out meekly, wagging its tail fervently at the unexpected release from jaws of sure death. The first part of the movie was palatable, but the second one surprised everyone. How did the panther not kill and devour its hard-fought prey? What caused a change of mind? What made him forego the fruits of a chase that risked the dangers of straying into a human territory? Was it benevolence! Was it mercy! or was it camaraderie of sympathy & endurance enforced by a common crisis? Each had his story to construct. I was no exception.

 

What I could conjure up was by imagining a scene of the happenings inside. After pouncing on its prey and the resultant scuffle inside the toilet, the leopard must have sprung back at the buffeting noise of his own movements on the door behind him, only to realise that he also was being prowled. He too had been trapped, overpowered, and rendered a prey by a superior species. A bigger aggressor had transformed him into the aggrieved. The reality struck hard and his hunger for food was surmounted by hunger for freedom. If not empathy, a feeling of companionship must have crept in him with the dog around, whom he now chose to see through a different lens. The trap became a common enemy and both probably decided to face it together, (the dog being left with no choice anyways). Maxim Gorky’s story surfaced in my mind wherein a sole bat in a hunter’s room turned into a soulmate and a desirable company when faced with the solitude of a dark night; in a forest guest house. Likewise, the panther found reprieve in the co-prey as a soulmate. Such is the fright of solitude in captivity.

 

No wonder, dreaded criminals were once confined in dark cells as harsh punishment. I often wondered as a child how confinement in a dark cell could be considered a punishment! For, punishment then would always mean something that incurred pain - a cane, a lashing or an ear twisting. Being left alone was in fact a relief. With time, it was learnt that closed spaces gave severe pangs of fear and often led to psychic disorders in the inmates. Chasing the prey was the feline’s natural instinct .... an urge to meet its carnal need of hunger; sparing it in adversity was a sentiment borne out of fear. Its flight to freedom was an effervescence brought about by the unexpected freedom that came as suddenly as it seemed to have been lost. Fear, they say is an eternal foe of clarity. Its presence takes away the “gut” & “grit” to undertake action. In its fear of death, the prey became companionable to its predator – a unifier. The panther forgot the call of its gut and lost the grit to fulfil its demand. What matters ultimately is that both lived to see another day on a Friendship day.