Survival

Pam Gurney

*India’s ‘Project Tiger’ aims to boost the population in the wild to as much as 4,000 in the next decade through conservation efforts to curb poaching, protect habitats from human activity, and restore prey species .

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

(William Blake – 1794)

‘And suddenly there he was… eyes like medallions . Then a flash of amber and black, and he’d disappeared, camouflaged by the forest . ’

‘Gone?’

‘That’s what I thought . But then, foolishly, I turned my back . And before I knew it, he pounced on me!’

Tamasi erupted into a fit of giggles in her grandfather’s lap as he pretended a roar, his silver moustache curling up at the corners .

‘Of course, if a tiger had attacked me, I wouldn’t have survived .’ He paused to take some deep breaths . ‘Such powerful animals .’

‘But did you really see a tiger, grandad?’

He began coughing, covered his mouth with a handkerchief and signalled to Tamasi to go outside .

Tamasi was often shooed into the confines of the walled courtyard, especially when the grown-ups were talking . It offered some insulation from the rumble and smog of the city, and contained a washing line, a rickety table, some pots, and a tiny patch of grass that was, to Tamasi, a jewel set in concrete . One of her jobs was to use the wastewater from the sinks and pour it over the grass to keep it green and alive . When she lay down on the ground and squinted

at the grass she could see lush forest undergrowth, and the leaves of the potted plants became a dense canopy of shade . Sometimes, in a puddle of water accumulated beneath the washing, there was a jungle pool . She would think about trees, insects, reptiles, birds, and mammals . In her imagined world roamed creatures Tamasi had learnt about at school – and from her grandfather . But none captured her imagination as much as the mysterious tiger . She had listened wide-eyed to her teacher talking about the habitats where wildlife once thrived, and Tamasi couldn’t forget what she had been told: ‘Wild tigers are under threat .’

A cicada landed beneath the dripping clothes on the washing line . She scooped it carefully in her hands, placed its water-logged body on the grass .

‘Leave that puddle alone – it’s full of germs,’ Tamasi’s mother called out from the doorway dabbing away perspiration from her cheeks . ‘Always, your head in the clouds…’ Her mother’s words were drowned out by a plane rising into the sky, just taken off from the city airport .

But Tamasi did understand that food prices had gone up again . She knew not to tell her mother when she felt hungry . This year’s harvest was spoiled by the flooding, the worst Mumbai had seen in years .

‘5,500 rupees for a bag of rice at the market today, the world’s gone mad!’ Tamasi’s father had shouted out on returning home from work the previous week, as he wrestled with the broken kickstand of his scooter . ‘We’ve no choice but to tighten our belts .’

She’d replied: ‘Papa, you don’t wear a belt .’

And her grandfather, his silver moustache twitching, said, ‘No belts, no problem then!’ and she laughed as he continued, ‘Let’s play tigers!’ But he had become breathless and needed to sit down .

‘We’re better off than most,’ her mother added . ‘We’ve been spared the cholera . At least Tamasi can still go to school . Although she needs to stop her daydreaming . And you don’t help .’ She threw a disapproving glance in Tamasi’s grandfather’s direction, ‘filling her head with animals she’ll never be able to see .’

‘Let her dream .’ His moustache twitched . ‘We need children to imagine how they can heal the world, clean the air . ’

‘It’s too late for that,’ her mother had turned away, returned to the kitchen, where she began banging cutlery and pots .

Back in the courtyard the cicada had flown, and Tamasi watched two planes, the fumes from their engines leaving a cross in the sky . She made a wish that when she was grown up, she’d be able to travel with her grandfather to see tigers in the wild .

Later that night she woke suddenly and, over the sound of her grandfather’s wheezing, somewhere outside she could hear a mewing . There were reports of big cats coming into the cities because the forests, their homes, were being cut down . What if it was a kitten or cub lost, orphaned or, even worse, injured?

The mewing grew louder . Tamasi knew she could never turn her back as she stepped barefooted into the street – she had to help all the animals left in the world survive .