Responsibility

Once there was a meeting in the forest. The main theme of the meeting was how to avoid waste of water. Elephant, the then president of the forest, had been the president of the meeting. Some other animals of the cabinet had also been there. Many common animals and some foxes were present in the meeting. But no solution to the problem was found. Common animals had offended the president for the crisis. President had been trying to convey to them that the government had been trying to solve the problems for years.

Long ago there had been autocracy in the forest. The line of lions had been the autocratic king of the forest. At first, lions had been calm and good rulers. But gradually, they became arrogant and cruel. They had tortured the common animals to fulfill their own interests. There was nepotism too. At last one day, all animals under the leadership of the elephant had attacked the ruler and the royal armies. The royal army was defeated and the last autocratic ruler had been in jail. Then a general election had been going on and all animals had elected the elephant as the president. After becoming the president of the forest, the elephant had made a cabinet with some efficient and intelligent animals, and from that time onwards his rule was established.

President was now in her house. She was thinking about how to solve the crisis. She had made some dams to reserve water to solve the water crisis. She had appointed one guard to every pond of the forest to save the water of ponds from any type of pollution. She had appointed one guard to each pond of the forest to stop the water of ponds from getting polluted. She had appointed a team of guards under a member of the cabinet to save the water of the river which was flowing by the forest. But the problem remained solved. She was aware of the political scenario of the forest also. Foxes were trying to make a new political party whose work was none but to go against the present government. They were talking that the president wasn’t taking any strict steps to stop the waste of water in public conferences. But after the conference, when they were in their houses, they wasted container after container full of water for just their own interests and fun. The spy of the president gave this news to her. But common animals became enthusiastic about the words of the foxes and they went against the present government. She also knew some animals in her cabinet were also involved in wasting water. They were in connection with foxes also. Just a day before the meeting, she had called some of the animals in her cabinet and rebuked them for wasting water. They had told her if she had been facing a problem working with them, she could have driven them from the cabinet. Now president thought of going to the common people individually to know their desires how to avoid wasting water.

There was an old beggar elephant in the street. She was asking every house for giving her some food to eat. There were some common animals. They were in gossip. They were discussing the present crisis. They told many things and at last, they started to offend the government for not solving the problem. Afterward, they returned to their houses. Then there were some exciting scenes. A tigress came out of her cave and she kept her one child in a big vessel of which half was full of water. She cleaned her child’s body in the water and after bathing the baby, she threw the water in the ground. Then she filled half of the vessel with water again and the same process continued. On the way, she bathed her three cubs. The beggar was watching the scene. Now she went to the tigress and asked her why she was wasting the water in this way. But the tigress did not want to realize her mistake and rebuked the beggar to teach her. A young horse was passing by. He saw the scene of rebuking of a tigress to the old beggar. He intervened and asked why the tigress was rebuking the beggar. When he learned the matter, he supported the old beggar. In this time the tiger came out of the cave and scolded the horse, “Who has told you to think about how to avoid the waste of water. You are a common animal. There are a cabinet and a president to think about it. Go away from here, else you would be beaten”. The horse went away and the tiger started to bathe with the vessel after the vessel full of water. The beggar, who was actually the president in disguise, was watching the scene with a sad and depressing look. She was feeling helpless. She could not understand how she could solve the problem where common animals didn’t want to realize the crisis. She went further.

After walking for some time, she saw some cubs were doing something. She went to them. These cubs were trying to prevent the polluted water from falling into a pond. Her mind was with hope again. She thought of making the rules strict to prevent the wasting of water and polluting of water. She should try her best to solve the crisis as there was a new generation. She would make a council to make some practical classes to make them understand about the water crises. As she knew they would surely understand this and other crises of the forest.

By Ramyajit Sarkar