Vinaya Kasajoo
There was a rumor that someone was distributing mobile phones in the jungle, free of cost.
“How’s the phone?” asked a red deer to a brown beer that was playing with a mobile in hand.
“It’s wonderful! One can browse the Internet, check e-mails and take photographs with it,” said the brown bear.
“Where do we get one, after all?” asked the deer, curiously.
Surprised, the bear asked, “Lo! Don’t you know yet? Tiger, the chief of the forest, is distributing a mobile phone each to every animal on the occasion of his son’s birthday. What’s more, he is inviting every deer, and giving a set each. How come you have no information yet?”
Happy, the red deer went running towards the tiger’s den.
On the birthday of the tiger’s son, many beasts in the forest received mobile phone sets as gifts. The deer numbered the highest among the recipients of the mobile phones. The rabbits were in the second. Bears, foxes, boars and hedgehogs also received them. Chankhe the monkey too was happy to own a set.
A few days after the mobiles were distributed, deer started missing from the forest, one after another. The number of rabbits too went down each day.
One day, the red deer was inside a grove playing with its fawns. On a branch upon a tree nearby, Chankhe was playing with his mobile phone. From quite afar, he saw the tiger coming with its cubs.
The tiger was speaking to someone on the phone in his hand, “The family of the red deer must be living somewhere here. I have the information that she had talked with her fawns on the mobile phone from this very location.”
Chankhe was surprised to hear the tiger’s words. He said to himself, ‘This must be the reason why the cunning tiger distributed mobile phones free of cost. He must have eaten up many deer by now. O, how can the remaining deer and rabbits be saved now?’
Chankhe hurriedly wrote an SMS to the red deer, “Run away; the tiger is very near.”
But amazingly, his SMS was not delivered. An automated message said, “Sending SMS to this telephone number has been blocked.”
‘The devil happened to block SMS as well,’ thought Chankhe. He was terribly worried about the red deer and its little fawns.
He ran in the highest speed he could manage to see the red deer. Informing her about the tiger’s approach, he said, “Do switch your phone off. Else, he will trace where you are, and will follow.”
Afraid of death, the red deer threw her mobile set away, and ran from there. Chankhe climbed upon a tree and started observing the tiger’s activities.
Looking for the deer, the tiger and its cubs reached the grove where the deer and its family stayed till a while ago. They were surprised to see the deer’s family missing.
“This is a strange thing that never happened in the past. It was from here that the signal has come to my mobile set,” said the tiger.
“Look, Daddy! The phone is here,” said the eldest cub, picking up the thrown-away phone.
The second cub added, “We must send words to the animals not to throw mobile sets wherever they like.”
Listening to its kids, the tiger moved ahead, looking for other deer.
Chankhe, who sat upon a tree above, overhead everything the tiger-family said. He switched his phone on, and logged into his Facebook page. On it, he uploaded the tiger’s recently taken photograph. Under it, he wrote in detail how the tiger was hunting the animals in the forest. At the end, he wrote a suggestion to all: “Without delay, throw the mobiles given by the tiger away at places no one can find.”
Thereafter, he started moving all around in the forest, shouting, “Throw your mobile phones away; throw your mobile phones away.”
***
[Late Kasajoo is a senior storywriter and media expert. He wrote extensively for children, and edited several volumes of children’s literature.]