encounter with elephants
13 feb, enroute Talassery to bangalore, Bharata yatra 2008
after kannur, we all stayed in talassery for another 2 days. the brahmasthanam ground is so small to hold the crowd thats coming for amma’s program. one could see many old faces coming for amma’s darshan. they have been coming to amma for the last two decades. the love and faith of north keralites is very special. all these innocent ones holds amma in their hearts.
the travel to bangalore started in the afternoon. we drove through the Western ghats, said bye bye to kerala’s green lush landscapes and people. the hair pin turn roads will take one to a height 2000 ft above sea level. after crossing the ghats the temperature drops suddenly by a few degrees. our travel was through the forest and i prepared my camera to capture the wilderness but the light was dimming as the sun was setting. i could not see any wild animals. it was around 7 pm at that point when i saw some deers hopping across the road in the headlights of our car. and there…look to your left – there stands a family of elephants! it was too dark to see clearly but there was some baby elephants.
after the stop with mother we reached bangalore after 2 am. many small children were waiting along with the older children to see Amma. Amma held 3 or 4 tiny toddlers to her bosom and all the children were shouting Mata Rani Ki and asking Amma to sing with them. Amma sang Mata Rani with them before going to her room and the bangaloreans waiting was made worth while.
These communions with nature and animals (ref: the squirrel piece) are great. I love how in the last part of this piece the elephant family and Amma’s family merge. Amma does to us what the female elephants do to their toddlers.