Kari, the elephant, was five months old when he was given to me to take care of, I was nine years old and I could reach his back if I stood on tiptoe He seemed to remain that high for nearly two years. Perhaps we grew together that is probably why I never found out just how tall he was. He lived in a pavilion, under a thatched roof, which rested on thick tree stumps so that it could not fall in when Kari bumped against the poles as he moved about.
One of the first things Kari did was to save the life of a boy. Kari did not eat much but he nevertheless needed more than eighteen kilos of twigs a day to chew and play with. Every morning I used to take him to the river for his bath He would lie down on the sand bank while I rubbed him with the clean sand of the river for an hour. After that, he would lie in the water for a long time.On coming out his skin would be shining like ebony and he would squeal with pleasure as I rubbed water down his back.
When one goes into the jungle, one must remember that there are laws one cannot break. Do you know that anyone who is afraid or who hates one of the animals of the jungle gives out an odour, which attracts tigers and wolves? Every day that I was afraid to go into the jungle, I did not dare to stay on the ground lest the tigers smell my presence and attack me. I climbed a tree instead, because when one is on a tree the odour of one's body does not go into the forest, and the animals cannot tell whether one is afraid or not.
It was not an easy job, as you see, to get twigs and saplings for Kari. I had to climb all kinds of trees to get the most delicate and tender twigs. As he was very fond of the young branches of the banyan tree, I was gathering some, one spring day in March, when I suddenly heard Kari calling me from a distance. As he was still very young, the call was more like that of a baby than an elephant. I thought somebody was hurting him, so I came down from my tree and ran very fast to the edge of the forest where I had left him, but he was not there.
I looked all over, but I could not find him. I went near the edge of the water, and I saw black figure above its surface. Then, it rose higher and it was the trunk of my elephant. I thought he was drowning. I was helpless because 1 could not jump into the water and save him he was much heavier than me. But I saw his back rise above the water and the moment he caught my eye, he began to trumpet and struggle up to the shore.
Then, still trumpeting, he pushed me into the water and as I fell into the stream I saw a boy lying flat at the bottom of the river. He had not altogether touched bottom but was somewhat afloat. I came to the surface of the water to catch my breath and Kari was standing, his feet planted into the sand bank and his trunk stretched out like a hand waiting for mine. I pulled the body of the drowning boy to the surface, but not being a good swimmer, I could not swim ashore and the slow current was already dragging me away.
Clutched at reeds on the shore but they broke. The weight of the boy was tiring out one hand while the other was already weak from excessive swimming and clutching at the reeds. Seeing us drift by the current, Kan who was usually so slow, suddenly darted down like a hawk and came halfway into the water where I saw him stretch out his trunk again. I raised up my hand to catch it and it slipped. I found myself going under the water again, but this time I found that the water was not very deep sol sank to the bottom of the river and doubled my feet under me and then suddenly kicked the river bed and so shot upwards like an arrow, in spite of the fact that I was holding the drowning boy with my hand. As my body rose above the water, I felt a something around my neck. This frightened me, I thought some water animal was going to swallow me. I heard the squealing of Kari, and I knew it was his trunk about my neck. Finally, he succeeded in pulling us both ashore.