Nature's Reforms

Have I told you about Neelakandan's friend? His name was Mooshik and he was a very "cock-sure" and "full-of-himself" specimen of elephant-kind. He was of the opinion that the fairer species (yes, Parukkutty and her friends were a shade lighter in the grey scale) were just meant to smile and look pretty and generally just keep out of the way while they tuskers decided the important things. He quickly won a place in the first page of the bad books of all the girls.

Parukkutty by nature, did not concern herself with other philosophies of life, such as the one above. But she did have a couple of unpleasant encounters with it. Once she heard him pronouncing, to a group of by-standers, his views on polygamy. Apparently he was all for bull elephants having multiple partners but not the other way round. How appalling, thought Parukkutty, and immediately asked him to explain why! He said this way, every child would know who his Mom and Dad were!

One bull and three cows.. The cows have a calf each. Each calf knows his Mom and Dad.
One cow and three bulls.. The cow has one calf. Does the calf know who his Dad is?

Yes, this was before the days of DNA testing.

And there was this other time when Parukkutty won the first prize for the Best non-conventional energy project where she tapped the wind energy generated by ten elephants flapping their ears. Mooshik hooted from the back of the crowd and said that she won the prize because she smiled at the judges. Parukkutty ran to Neelakandan for solace. Neelakandan 'Tch Tch'-ed and 'Tsk Tsk'-ed through the whole story and told her that she shouldn't trouble herself over Mooshik. He was just being jealous. Neelakandan assured her that she had won the prize purely out of merit and 'So What' even if she had flirted. He said that flirting was the birth right of the female of the species. He lent her his hand kerchief to blow her trunk on and he was on the whole so sweet that Parukkutty didn't have the heart to ask him when he had last washed his hand kerchief.

Well, this story just goes on to say that when Parukkutty saw Mooshik again after long years, he had two cute little baby girls twisted round his trunk and he was humming to the tune of "Papa kehte hain bada naam karega.. Betiyaan hamaree aisa kaam karega.. " Nature's way of dealing with male chauvinism, you think?

-Aval