Earth Day Stories

These stories were written for Earth Day 2002, to honor the Earth. It was also to honor the spirits of two among many animals I feel close to.

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I was born on an overcast day, on one of the hills, in the range which is now known as the Western Ghats. I was born in God's Own Country. I was born with dozens of my brothers and sisters. I was born blind and confused and struggling and writhing among dozens of other new-born bodies, under a stone. It was a warm haven, under rocks, in the shade, in the grass and undergrowth. I separated from my siblings pretty soon and grew up to be a young cobra. Long, dark and handsome. Lone (but not lonely) and quite content to be so. My only constant companion was the Earth. I was so close to the Earth, born in the Earth, of the Earth. I was the child of the Earth. I was always aware of the Earth and every change in her. I was sensitive to how warm or cold she was; I could sense the vibrations in her; she told me when a prey or a danger was approaching; in her I could sense the coming seasonal changes long before the first outward signs appeared; and in her I could sense the coming rains long before the first cloud appeared in the sky. How pleasing it was to stretch myself on warm, hard rock and bath in the sun! What pleasure to move in the cool grass! How heavenly it was to hide myself in a shady hole somewhere, after a heavy meal, and rest for days!

I remember that year when I chose a young bandicoot for lunch. Swallowing it was a real effort. It stretched every part of me to the maximum, from my mouth to my belly; so much so that at one moment I thought I might tear myself. For hours, I just couldn't move from the place. Fortunately, I found a tree hollow close by and crawled into it with great difficulty. I rested and slept for days, while the bandicoot digested slowly inside me. When I woke up, my skin felt very loose all along my body. I thought it was because my big meal had stretched and enlarged me, and now I was loose as I was empty inside. I thought I should go out and find something to eat. I crawled out of the tree, into the sun and felt very lethargic. The more I crawled, the looser my skin got and the more tired I felt. Soon my eyes clouded over, I couldn't see anything, and I just dozed in the sun. When I woke up again, I felt a great need to get rid of the loose skin which did not feel comfortable on my body. I was not sure if it was the right thing to do - to get rid of my skin. Nevertheless, I rubbed my face on the stone and the skin tore. Soon, I crawled out of my old skin, and had a brand, new skin that shone in the sun like a dark diamond.

I could not help admiring my own new found beauty. I felt a strange tingling in my body that I had never felt before. I was aware of myself in a brand new way. I knew who I was, and I felt like sharing that knowledge with someone. No, I WANTED to share that knowledge. And within minutes, I had an uncontrollable URGE to share that knowledge with someone. I was restless and set out to find someone to share it with. I was quite ready to circumnavigate the whole of my beloved Earth to find someone. As it turned out, I did not have to go too far. I found another young dark cobra, and could not help but notice that he was more beautiful than me. I was quite disappointed and embarrassed with myself, but there was another, greater feeling. I felt uncontrollably drawn to him. He was curious about me too, but pretended to ignore me. There was something about him, a look, a smell, an aura that just PULLED me. And when I got close to him, I suddenly KNEW he was a SHE! There was no stopping me now. I HAD to feel her with every inch of my body, I HAD to dance the eternal Dance of the Serpent with her. And we danced for a long time.

I had a long and adventurous life, with many big meals, many encounters with dangers. I once met a hungry fox which tried to eat me; I managed to escape but the scar on my body remained even after many a shedding of skin. And of course there were many Dances of the Serpent. Many many dances with many many serpents. More than I can remember, even with my strong, long, memory...


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Even as a kid, I was quite different from others. I was not competitive and did not participate in all the games that other kids played. Games which the parents watched with indulgence. My mother worried that I might grow up to be a weak person and might not live long. She tried to encourage me by pushing me into the games or trying to play with me herself. She did not understand that I was not interested in the games of those other kids, those games in which they only pretended to be adults fighting for food and territory and mates. I was never a great pretender, nor a show off. Showing off is a natural part of wolf behavior, and since I almost never showed off, most other wolves did not know where to place me. Even when I did participate in the pack hunt, I did not like to squabble for food. So if there was not enough food for everyone, I just went away and found my own food. These solo hunting trips taught me many things that would later turn out to be useful. At times my packmates would try to force me into their never ending games but I just ignored them and moved away. There were one or two occasions when I had to discourage some young wolf or other with a vicious growl. But one day, one of them went too far. He was the son of the leader of our pack, and everyone knew he was going to be a leader. He was two years older than me and bigger too. At first he was just trying to playfully force me, but soon his play became rougher and rougher, until I no longer knew if it was just play. And he would not let me ignore him and move away either. When I felt his sharp teeth on my neck, I could no longer take it. I whirled round and threw him off my neck. Before he knew what hit him, I was on him. It hardly lasted a few moments, and at the end of it he had his left ear almost torn off, his left eye was gone, and his left leg was broken. He would never be the leader.

I felt very sad. I felt sadder than his parents did, though no one knew it. I could no longer stay in the pack. That a new moon night. Against all wolf instinct to venture far from the pack on a new moon night, I silently stole away. I spent many days as a lonely wolf. It was miserable. I missed my pack terribly. Though I was not a very sociable member of the pack, a wolf is nothing if not a member of a pack. I missed the constant noises and the distractions. I even missed the pack hunts. And above all, I missed howling with the pack on full moon nights. But I am a wolf, and wolves don't dwell on their miseries. Wolves just go on living, living a full life. We just live by the Great Truth of Life, of Earth. The Great Truth that is part of our hearts, that's deep in our bones, that seeps into our bodies from Earth herself when we lie down on her. The Great Truth is: No matter what difficulties and obstacles come our way, we don't waste time brooding over it or complaining about it. We just put our noses and paws to the task before us, and go on living. Living the fullest life we are capable of living, with the strength and resources that the Earth gives us.

During those months, the Earth was my companion and her Truth was my support. With her, I never felt lonely. I got nourishment from her gift of food, and happiness from her immense beauty. Since I was a lone wolf, I could not stay long in any place and establish my territory. I had to keep moving from one place to another, most of which belonged to one wolf pack or another. On one of these wanderings, I unexpectedly came upon a lone she-wolf feeding on a rabbit. She growled at me viciously thinking I would snatch her kill. I moved back and kept a respectful distance. I expected her to either try to make me go away or grab her kill and run away to her pack. She did neither. She just ignored me and continued to eat, while I sat and watched her. It was love at first sight for me. I had never seen a wolf look so beautiful, eating a rabbit. After her meal was done, she turned and started to go away. I noticed that she had left behind a meaty rabbit leg. I wondered if she had left that for me. Was that possible? I grabbed and swallowed the leg in one movement, and bounded after her. I followed her till she rejoined her pack. I did not go closer as some of the pack members were getting uncomfortable on seeing me, a strange wolf. But I just could not bring myself to go very far from that pack either.

She sensed me and she came to me. She was forever mine. We had a long and eventful life, establishing a pack together. It was not easy to establish our own territory and build a pack from scratch. But we were loyal to the Great Truth of the Earth and with her blessing, we succeeded. Counting our children and grandchildren and friends and relatives, it was a respectful 23 member pack. My mate was with me at every step of the way, supportive and equal to me in everything. I was truly proud of her and loved her deeply.

There was only one time when I did not stick to the Great Truth of Life. When we grew old, my mate and I, and we knew that we could no longer lead our pack, we chose to leave it instead of stay and fight one of our own young for dominance. We left quietly and lived by ourselves, hunting together. On one of these hunts, we were stalking an old deer with great antlers. As usual, I was going to attack him from the left, while my mate would pounce from the right. I pounced on him, going for the neck, taking care not to come in the way of his antlers. I jumped on him from the left a second before my mate did, the deer instinctively turned his head towards me, and his antler caught my love right in the heart. She died almost instantly. There was nothing I could do to save her. I slowly dragged her body into a nearby shady tree hollow, and just lay down beside her. It was a new moon night, and I howled at the dark sky with helpless misery. I did not move from the place once, I did not eat, I did not do anything. And I don't remember when death came, despite my long, long memory. For, long before death came, my weak starved body had gone into a sleep from which it would not wake up. I did not stick to the Great Truth of Earth, the Truth of living against all obstacles. I gave up the Truth of Life in favor of the Truth of Love.


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I absolutely loved my job. It was all about honoring and worshipping and serving Mother Earth, and in the process, helping to feed my countrymen. I was a paddy farmer in South India. Ah, what life it was! So closely connected to the Earth, and her husband the Sun, and their children the clouds, and their tears the rains, and their love the seasons. I was happiest when working in my paddy field, in the mud, with my two bullocks, my dark body clad in nothing but my loincloth, and sweat glistening on my skin. My sweat and the sweat of my forefathers of countless generations had nourished my Earth and my Earth nourished us all.

It was a hard life. It was a steady life. It was a predictable life. My forefather's and my father's and mine. Year after year, we tilled the land with our bullocks, we prayed and waited for the rains, we sowed our grains, we watched them grow, we harvested them and dehusked them. Year after year after year. And somewhere in between all that, we found time to marry and have children and see our children grow. Grow up to take our place. But our first wife was our work, the work which served our mother Earth. Many people accused me of being more partial to my second wife, the girl who had grown up in my village, grown up with me and eventually married me.

And why wouldn't I be partial to her? She was so beautiful. Her skin like a precious, exotic, shining, dark wood, her body like a young drumstick tree, her smile like sweet fresh milk, her scent like... like... a WOMAN! Though we had grown up together, she was still my new wife, we did not even have any children yet. And she made the best karuvaadu (dried, salted fish) fry I had ever tasted. She would bring food to me in the field every noon. Usually it was kanji (rice porridge), with pickle, and a side dish made of vegetable or egg or fish or chicken or lamb. At times it was rice with a curry. My favorite was the karuvaadu, the way she made it, fried so spicy and tasty and tangy and sexy, just sexy... there's no other way to describe it. She would bring the food to the field in a basket, sit in the shade of the tree on the edge of my field near the well, and she would watch me work. I never let her wait long. I would leave my work as soon as I could, and rushed to her. She would then wipe the sweat off my face and body with her saree. At times her closeness affected my body and she would giggle seeing the effect. After all, I would be clad in just a loincloth and it was not possible to hide my reactions. And then we would sit down for the delicious lunch. We would joke and laugh and tease and feed each other. And then it would be time for her to go back home. I would watch her go, eyeing her behind with longing as far as I could see her. And then I would go back to my work.

It seemed like my life would just go on this way. Sweet and predictable, like that of all my forefathers. That was until Gandhi's disciples came to our village. They held meetings in the evenings. They told us what was happening to our country, our Bharatha Matha. They told us of how the white foreigners had conquered our country and were robbing and raping her. They told us about how they had enslaved our people and were trying to destroy our culture. They told us it was the duty of every son to protect his mother. As sons of the soil, it was our duty to free our Bharatha Matha, our Earth. My heart was set afire listening to the indignity on my country. Suddenly, my Mother Earth needed me to serve her in a way that was more urgent than, what I and my father and forefathers had done for years. We went to participate in the Quit India rally at the nearby town. We were told that it was to be a peaceful show. I took my wife with me. The rally did not turn out to be so peaceful after all. My burning heart was broken by a burning bullet from the rifle of a fellow countryman taking orders from foreigners. As I fell to the ground, I had a moment of great anxiety thinking about my fields, my Earth. Who would look after her now? Who would serve her after I died? Would some stranger take over her just like foreigners had taken over my country? It caused me immense sorrow. And then, I heard my wife shrieking in agony. She fell on the ground beside me and cradled my head in her lap. As my head touched her lap, I had a sudden intuitive realization, and my anxiety and sorrow were gone. I felt totally at peace. For I knew that my wife had been blessed by the Earth. She was now a mother, and the seed I had sown in her was growing. I died content in the knowledge that my offspring would continue to serve our Earth.

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