We came to the big cats, our tigers, lions and leopards. Babu, their keeper, was waiting for us. We went round and down the path, and he unlocked the door to the cat house, which was at the centre of a moated island. We entered. It was a vast and dim cement cavern, circular in shape, warm and humid, and smelling of cat urine. All around were great big cages divided up by thick, green, iron bars. A yellowish light filtered down from
the skylights. Through the cage exits we could see the vegetation of the surrounding island, flooded with sunlight. The cages were empty—save one: Mahisha, our Bengal tiger patriarch, a lanky, hulking beast of 550 pounds, had been detained. As soon as we stepped in, he loped up to the bars of his cage and set off a full-throated snarl, ears flat against his skull and round eyes fixed on Babu. The sound was so loud and fierce it seemed to shake the whole cat house. My knees started quaking. I got close to Mother.
She was trembling, too. Even Father seemed to pause and steady himself. Only Babu was indifferent to the outburst and to the searing stare that bored into him like a drill. He had a tested trust in iron bars. Mahisha started pacing to and fro against the limits of his cage.
Father turned to us. "What animal is this?" he bellowed above Mahisha's snarling.
"It's a tiger," Ravi and I answered in unison, obediently pointing out the blindingly obvious.
"Are tigers dangerous?"
"Yes, Father, tigers are dangerous."
"Tigers are very dangerous," Father shouted. "I want you to understand that you are never—under any circumstances—to touch a tiger, to pet a tiger, to put your hands through the bars of a cage, even to get close to a cage. Is that clear? Ravi?"
Ravi nodded vigorously.
"Piscine?"
I nodded even more vigorously.
He kept his eyes on me.
I nodded so hard I'm surprised my neck didn't snap and my head fall to the floor.
I would like to say in my own defence that though I may have anthropomorphized the animals till they spoke fluent English, the pheasants complaining in uppity British accents of their tea being cold and the baboons planning their bank robbery getaway in the flat, menacing tones of American gangsters, the fancy was always conscious. I quite deliberately dressed wild animals in tame costumes of my imagination. But I never deluded myself as to the real nature of my playmates. My poking nose had more sense than that. I don't know where Father got the idea that his youngest son was itching to step into a cage with a ferocious carnivore. But wherever the strange worry came from—and Father was a worrier—he was clearly determined to rid himself of it that very morning.
"I'm going to show you how dangerous tigers are," he continued. "I want you to remember this lesson for the rest of your lives."
He turned to Babu and nodded. Babu left. Malahisha's eyes followed him and did not move from the door he disappeared through. He returned a few seconds later carrying a goat with its legs tied. Mother gripped me from behind. Mahihisha's snarl turned into a growl deep in the throat.
Babu unlocked, opened, entered, closed and locked a cage next to the tiger's cage. Bars and a trapdoor separated the two. Immediately Mahisha was up against the dividing bars, pawing them. To his growling he now added explosive, arrested woofs. Babu placed the goat on the floor; its flanks were heaving violently, its tongue hung from its mouth, and its eyes were spinning orbs. He untied its legs. The goat got to its feet. Babu exited the cage in the same careful way he had entered it. The cage had two floors, one level with us, the other at the back, higher by about three feet, that led outside to the island. The goat scrambled to this second level. Mahisha, now unconcerned with Babu, paralleled the move in his cage in a fluid, effortless motion. He crouched and lay still, his slowly moving tail the only sign of tension.
Babu stepped up to the trapdoor between the cages and started pulling it open. In anticipation of satisfaction, Mahisha fell silent. I heard two things at that moment: Father saying "Never forget this lesson" as he looked on grimly; and the bleating of the goat. It must have been bleating all along, only we couldn't hear it before.
I could feel Mother's hand pressed against my pounding heart.
The trapdoor resisted with sharp cries. Mahisha was beside himself—he looked as if he were about to burst through the bars. He seemed to hesitate between staying where he was, at the place where his prey was closest but most certainly out of reach, and moving to the ground level, further away but where the trapdoor was located. He raised himself and started snarling again.
The goat started to jump. It jumped to amazing heights. I had no idea a goat could jump so high. But the back of the cage was a high and smooth cement wall.
With sudden ease the trapdoor slid open. Silence fell again, except for bleating and the click-click of the goat's hooves against the floor.
A streak of black and orange flowed from one cage to the next.
Normally the big cats were not given food one day a week, to simulate conditions in the wild. We found out later that Father had ordered that Mahisha not be fed for three days.
I don't know if I saw blood before turning into Mother's arms or if I daubed it on later, in my memory, with a big brush. But I heard. It was enoiugh to scare the living vegetarian daylights out of me. Mother bundled us out. We were in hysterics. She was incensed.
"How could you, Santosh? They're children! They'll be scarred for the rest of their lives."
Her voice was hot and tremulous. I could see she had tears in her eyes. I felt better.
"Gita, my bird, it's for their sake. What if Piscine had stuck his hand through the bars of the cage one day to touch the pretty orange fur? Better a goat than him, no?"
His voice was soft, nearly a whisper. He looked contrite. He never called her "my bird" in front of us.
We were huddled around her. He joined us. But the lesson was not over, though it was gentler after that.
Father led us to the lions and leopards.
"Once there was a madman in Australia who was a black belt in karate. He wanted to prove himself against the lions. He lost. Badly. The keepers found only half his body in the morning."
"Yes, Father."
The Himalayan bears and the sloth bears.
"One strike of the claws from these cuddly creatures and your innards will be scooped out and splattered all over the ground."
"Yes, Father."
The hippos.
"With those soft, flabby mouths of theirs they'll crush your body to a bloody pulp. On land they can outrun you."
"Yes, Father."
The hyenas.
"The strongest jaws in nature. Don't think that they're cowardly or that they only eat carrion. They're not and they don't! They'll start eating you while you're still alive."
"Yes, Father."
The orangutans.
"As strong as ten men. They'll break your bones as if they were twigs. I know some of them were once pets and you played with them when they were small. But now they're grownup and wild and unpredictable."
"Yes, Father."
The ostrich.
"Looks flustered and silly, doesn't it? Listen up: it's one of the most dangerous animals in a zoo. Just one kick and your back is broken or your torso is crushed."
"Yes, Father."
The spotted deer.
"So pretty, aren't they? If the male feels he has to, he'll charge you and those short little antlers will pierce you like daggers."
"Yes, Father."
The Arabian camel.
"One slobbering bite and you've lost a chunk of flesh."
"Yes, Father."
The black swans.
"With their beaks they'll crack your skull. With their wings they'll break your arms."
"Yes, Father."
The smaller birds.
"They'll cut through your fingers with their beaks as if they were butter."
"Yes, Father."
The elephants.
"The most dangerous animal of all. More keepers and visitors are killed by elephants than by any other animal in a zoo. A young elephant will most likely dismember you and trample your body parts flat. That's what happened to one poor lost soul in a European zoo who got into the elephant house through a window. An older, more patient animal will squeeze you against a wall or sit on you. Sounds funny—but think about it!"
"Yes, Father."