The Lord, an elephant and some friends of nature

Everyone has a friend who always ends up being the butt of jokes. I also have few of those, the story of one I have narrated in this blog. I seem to attract these elements in hordes. Obviously there is something about me that they like very much and if my mother's words are to taken seriously, [ I don't and I suggest you don't either], birds of the same colour, feather, beak and religion stick together.

Here is one such story, wherein stars a good friend of mine Hrishi and a group of friends.

Hrishi and group of friends, who call themselves friends of nature, regularly take an anual trekking to Sabarimala [ a place of pilgrimage in Kerala]. They take a deviation from the regular route, i.e., they reach Sabarimala, going through a rough terrain called Erumeli, which is a virginal forest land and where there is a natural abundance of wild life. They usually take the well worn path, used by pilgrims and take a few meters ofdigression only when the call of nature is really pressing and very demanding. Even then, the group does not split, but stay in earshot distance from each other. On one such 'deviated' trip, amidst cries of " Kallum Mullum, Kalikku Methai", they were cries of "run for your life, AN ELEPHANT!!

BUT IT WAS TOO LATE!!! The elephant was too near and almost on them. And you know, you can run fast with your pants on, but not at all with your pants half down, a natural position you assume in the line of duty of attending to these calls of nature. The only natural thing to do, in these pressing times of impending danger, is to seek out the assistance of the 'Great One', Swamy Ayyappan, which was naturally what Hrishi and his friends of nature proceeded to do. In the squatting position, the elephant seen in close quarters is certainly a towering phenomenon with phenominal degree of menace, and it was not lost on our friends of nature. They closed their eyes, and without even bothering to stand up, cried aloud, all in unison. "SWAMIYE SARANAM AYYAPPA, RAKSHIKANE THAMPURANE" [ HELP US O' GOD].

And Lo!!!SWAMY AYYAPPAN answered their prayers with a loud laughter. What was a mere elephant before the might of the GREAT ONE and naturally our friends of nature were relieved [relief as in relief you feel from a narrow escape and not as in relieved bowels] to hear the laughter that came from the skies. It is not in our everyday lives that Swamy Ayyappan, personally descends from the skies to relieve [ the same meaning as the one above] you of your burdens. With a great sense of gratitude, the friends of nature jumped up, pulled up their pants not wanting to be caught with their pants down [ no pun intended] whether it be the elephant or AYYAPPAN.

There atop the elephant appeared the beaming face of their saviour, the mahout. The elephant was a tame one and was used to transport the trees felled in the forest and our friends of nature simply bumped into it or rather, the elephant simply caught them with their pants down. Needless to say, the mahout fell off the elephant, laughing his guts out and our friends of nature, all ashen faced, joined the mahout [ still lying on the ground and still laughing] in laughing mania that lasted days.