War - From the eyes of a child

I woke up early on Christmas morning and couldn't believe my eyes. There were no soldiers on the road, no tanks and guns, no sound of bombings. After 5 long years would I have a real Christmas I wondered. Yes it was 5 years ago that it all started, when my world came crumbling around me. I was at exactly the same spot. A stray bullet had just pierced my Daddy's chest. 

As I and my brother stood watching from behind the bushes, our Daddy's 350 kg body came crashing down from the tree. The last heart-wrenching roar that had escaped from his mouth had meant only one thing: "RUN!!!" The sounds of the tanks were at full blast. But for the first time in 2 years, since the war had started, there was a complete silence with our daddys, last roar drenching each and every inch of our skin.

We ran madly through the shrubbery as fast as our little paws could carry us and reached our mom. The look in our eyes and her's made no words necessary. She knew. She wept quietly - her rich brown coat of hair trembling occasionally.

We bears are peaceful creatures - and love quiet. That quiet had been disturbed since 2 years - for reasons I never knew, for a mistake we never made. But today, seeing our hero fall, and with the male's family responsibility on my shoulders - the single bullet shot made me ask the questions I had never bothered to ask from my safe cocoon.

Poisonous chemicals had contaminated the natural water streams. A third of the tree cover had been destroyed- rendering many of the jungle animals homeless and exposed to their predators. The aquatic animals had started dying ay by day. The eco system was getting unbalanced.

Why was man killing his own species? He did not even eat them. What could be a more important reason? From the hill tops, we animals had always seen the village folk as a simple people whose needs were also as simple. Then WHY were THEY being punished?

These questions made me do the very thing that mom had been telling me long since - join the jungle school, where Solomonk - the wise monkey, taught us about the ways of the world. He tried to answer all these questions that I threw at him - but I was never really convinced, and I always felt, nor was he.

For instance, Solomonk said that human wars happened for something called 'money' and 'power'. He also said that wars created balance of power, so that nobody else felt threatened by another - and hence peace was achieved. This 'money' (rather, its amount) was some pieces of metal/paper which was supposedly the indicator of how powerful a person or a village or a country was. And man supposedly made wars for it. But what did power mean to them? In our world, the most powerful creature was the one who was most loved, the most respected. He did not have to grab power. He was a person who cared the least about power - but commanded it the most. And the means was love. For humans, the means seemed to be FEAR. How could peace be born from fear? And how could killing one's own species create peace? Or even power? And the funniest part was, the people who made these decisons for power and peace were many many mountains and jungles away - while people who did not have any interest in power...were being killed!

But Solomonk was clever. Whenever my questions trapped him, he had only one answer: "Man is the most intelligent creature on earth. If you and I knew everything, wouldn't we be the most powerful on earth?"

But I was never sure I wanted this 'power'. Leon - the lion was most respected, he killed animals and ate them, but only as much was required. We animals also had wars, fights - but only when somebody else tried to take what was rightfully our's or endangered our loved ones. Man had already taken a lot from other species - but he never seemed to be satisfied, even with his OWN species!

As I slowly learnt to accept things that I could not understand, my sympathy for man increased - I strangely felt more powerful than he was. The animals had already started relocating, their will to survive being their only motivation. Somebody had already discovered a fresh stream of pure water. Life was beginning again - while the war was still on. 

Earlier, during every Christmas the people used to celebrate and then we animals used to grab the leftovers during the night.

It had been 5 years since the animals had got a chance to celebrate Christmas. But this Christmas, the sight had changed. The noises had subsided. Peace was here again - but there were very few humans left to enjoy it. But yes, the celbrations were on. The spark was lit. 

I felt ashamed at the relief that I felt at being a dumb, unintelligent animal. I thought of the joke that Solomonk always cracked whenever we saw the battle fires, the burnt houses, the soldiers doing a victory dance over their enemy's dead bodies. He used to say: 

"And the humans say....'power and greed turns man into an animal' If that had actually happened, I think the humans would be much better off!"