How the Whale Learnt Her Lesson

Not long ago in an ocean which was very very blue,there lived a Blue Whale called Mili. Now Blue Whale is the largest living creature ever to have lived on earth.Mili weighed one lakh kilos and was thirty five metres long. That is as long as a row of cars parked in a very large parking lot and as heavy as a tiny mountain. Thank God Mili never had to walk!!

Mili knew she was BIG. She was LOUD and BOASTFUL.

Ollie Orca on the other hand was a small smart whale. He was a Killer Whale. Small whales however are bigger that the tallest Dads and Moms you know. Ollie's mom Olivia asked him to stay with the pod which is what a group of whales is called,but Ollie thought he was old enough to venture into deeper waters.

One day as he went exploring, he saw Mili. She blew a fountain as she came up to breathe. Spotting Ollie she screamed,"Get away kid!Out of my way!"Ollie was shocked and hurt at being called kid. He decided to teach Mili a lesson. Gathering all the courage he could muster he looked at her in the eye and said,"Hey ,'Miss I know it All',why don't you pick on someone your size-the biggest snake in all the world is sleeping down below",pointing in the direction of the trans-atlantic optic fibre cable. It was long long wire connecting Europe and America so that people could talk easily to each other on phone.

Mili didn't know this. She thought it was a huge monster snake. She hated the fact that it was bigger than her. She dived deep down and dug her baleen into it. Baleen is like a sieve mom uses in the kitchen to take yucky cream out of your milk and blue whales have only baleen ....no teeth.

Mili's baleen ached but nothing happened to the 'snake'. Worse still was the fact that some Humans sitting in front of computers in far away London actually sent a ship to chase Mili away from the cable.

Imagine how embarrassed Mili felt to be shooed away by Humans!

After this anytime she got anywhere close to a pod of Killer Whales they would all sing in chorus,"There goes Mili the Buddu Blue Whale..Buddhu Buddhu Buddu...." Mili had learnt her lesson and never was boastful again!

In Twilight Zone

I told her a story today. Her story. How she had told me about Jambavan,about Shantanu and Satyavati, about how she had to carry Kichu to prevent him from eating camphor while in the puja room....

She had been bathed and fed, the sheet on the water bed changed. The roles reversed,my great grandmother smiled as I spoke holding her hand.She couldn't comprehend my account of the class trip to Ganapati Pule or my friend Sreeja's wedding but she still recognised my voice.

Amma says there are goods days when television interests her and she finds fault with the food. But most of the days are spent in sleep-heavy yet not sound. Her mind wanders,oblivious...in a world where no one is granted permission to enter or interrupt. In limbo on the bridge between life and death...in twilight zone.