SUMMARY OF THE LESSON
This is the story of love and friendship between an animal and a human being. One day the author and his friends were passing through the sugarcane fields near Mysore, where people were driving away the wild pigs from the fields by shooting at them. Unluckily one of the companions of the author shot a bear. Then they found that a baby bear was also riding the bear that was killed by them. The author brought it to Bangalore and gave it to his wife. She felt delighted about getting it. She named it ‘Bruno’ as the cub was a ‘boy’. Bruno soon took to drinking milk from a bottle and started eating everything.
One day an accident befell him. The bear entered the library and ate some poison that had been put there for rats. The poison paralysed the bear but somehow he dragged himself to the author’s wife. Bruno was rushed to an animal clinic and was saved. Another time Bruno drank one gallon of old engine oil but it had no ill effects whatsoever. Slowly and gradually Bruno equalled the Alsatians in height and had even outgrown them. Then the author’s wife changed his name to ‘Baba’. Baba had now learnt many tricks and now he was in chains most of the time. The author and his son advised the author’s wife to give Baba to the Zoo at Mysore. The zoo sent a cage from Mysore in a lorry and Baba was packed off. Baba and the author’s wife both felt very sad after it. Both were undergoing departing grief. Now the author took his wife to Mysore so that she could meet Baba in the zoo. When Baba saw her he started dancing and stood on his head in delight. For the next three hours, she would not leave that cage. She gave him tea, cakes, ice cream, etc. When the ‘closing time’ came, both started crying bitterly. The author’s wife asked the curator, “May I have my Baba back” and luckily he agreed somehow. The author’s wife brought her Baba back to her home and kept him in a special place in her home. Now both the bear and the author’s wife were happy. After reading this story no body can say that a sloth bear has no sense of affection, no memory, and no individual characteristics.
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