Story for children: Grateful Elephants!

In a forest in Mysore, there lived a family of elephants. One day the mother elephant and her baby were walking along a forest road when they saw a human being lying unconscious at the foot of a roadside tree. Mother is a mother whether she is a human or an animal. The mother elephant did not have the heart to walk past the figure. She stopped and checked if the human being was breathing or not. She felt the nostrils of the fallen person with her trunk-tip and found out that he was alive. Then she noticed a picture of Lord Ganesh tattooed on the hand of the unconscious person. She instantly recognized the person as the steam engine driver who had saved them both by giving them water on a previous year's summer noon.

It had all happened a year ago. She and her calf were searching for water one very hot summer noon. Their thirst became unbearable. They came to a railway line and were about to cross over to the other side of the track when her calf’s legs gave way and it slumped in the middle of the track. All that calf needed then was water. Even as the mother elephant was trying to pull the calf across the rail line there came round a bend a train hurling down pulled by a steam engine, The driver of the steam engine sounded the whistle repeatedly. When he noticed no response from the elephants he applied the brakes and brought the engine to a halt within a meter of the mother elephant astride the track. The sight of the fallen calf and grief-stricken mother elephant moved him.

The sun was beating down from a cloudless sky. The driver Rajappa understood that the mother and calf urgently needed water. He and his fireman with the help of a spare hose pipe directed a jet of water into the mouths of the calf and its mother alternately. Once a gallon of water went down its parched throat the calf was back on its feet. The mother elephant too drank the water that spurted from the hose to her heart's content. Then they left the place raising their trunks in unison in salutation to the engine driver and his assistant. While the driver Rajappa was watering them the mother had noticed the tattooed Ganesh picture on his hand.

Once the realization came that the unconscious person was none other than the engine driver who poured water into their mouths that summer day, the mother elephant lifted Rajappa the driver in her trunk and proceeded towards the nearby check post. Once they reached the place she lowered him on the ground before the person manning the check post and walked away to stand afar and watch. The staff at the check post revived the engine driver by splashing water on his face. They gave him some porridge to drink when he sat up. They told him how he was carried by an elephant and her calf and deposited before them. Rajappa put two and two together and understood that the elephants were none other than the ones he once saved from dying of thirst. He turned to the elephants standing and watching him from a distance, folded his palms together and said 'Thank You'.