JOE JOE THE BABY ELEPHANT!

This is the story of a cute African elephant calf.

Years ago there was a circus called 'Jungle Folks' traveling across India. One of the attractions they had was an African elephant calf. Wherever they camped he was the center of attraction. You know African elephants are not like their Asian cousins. They differ not only in looks but also in behaviour. They are hard to train and domesticate. But Joe Joe, that was his name, proved an exception. He was friendly, sprightly and full of pranks. One tragic thing about his life was that he had lost his parents; his mother was killed when she tried to rescue him from the people who caught him while his father was captured and taken to some European country. The scar of that incident was still in his heart.

One day the circus was moving from one city to another in a train... and the train derailed! It happened when the train was passing through a forest area. The wagon in which Joe Joe and one adult elephant named Raju were confined broke open. The chains on their legs snapped in the impact.

It was pitch dark. Raju decided to slip away. He said to Joe Joe ‘come on, this is God given opportunity. Let us flee into the jungle and become free again’. Joe Joe was confused. "I am a baby elephant. How can I look after myself in this strange place?” he said. “Don’t worry, you just come with me I will look after you...” Raju persuaded. Joe Joe knew how unreliable Raju was. However, the open jungle tempted him and finally he decided to follow Raju.

They walked and walked and around midnight they came to a banyan tree. ‘Let us take some rest’ said Raju and lay down. Joe Joe was tired and so went to sleep at once.

When he woke up to the songs of birds the sun was shining through the canopy of the tree. When he looked around Raju was not to be seen. He was scared he began to cry. He did not know what to do.

At noon, hungry and tired Joe Joe reached a jungle stream, drank some water and lay down under a tree and dozed off. Suddenly he woke up with a start to the sprinkling of water on his face. There stood in front of him, in a semicircle, a herd of elephants two of them being babies. A mother elephant shuffled forward, gently put her trunk around Joe Joe and lifted him to his feet. ‘Who are you? Where are your parents? How did you get here?' she asked.

Joe Joe told them the entire story, right from the early days in Africa. While the mother and her child Tummy wanted to take Joe Joe, one teenaged guy called Stouty opposed. ‘Look, he is not one of us. He looks entirely different. I remember my grandpa telling fearful stories about our African cousins.

After about half an hour of discussion it was decided to give shelter to Joe Joe temporarily. ‘First he needs some food’, told the mother elephant. They took him to a nearby sugarcane field and a baby elephant stole into the field and returned with a bunch of juicy canes. Joe Joe never tasted a thing like that before. He prayed he could be allowed to remain with the herd.

A week or so passed. Joe Joe started winning the hearts of members of the herd one by one. He ran errands for adults. He massaged the legs of elderly elephants. He amused the fellow calves with tricks he learnt in the circus. A time came when none of the members of the herd could think of driving away Joe Joe.

What is more Joe Joe, and Tummy became very thick friends. Tummy threatened to go on fast if Joe Joe was not allowed to remain with him. So one evening a meeting was called. The head of the herd Gaja spoke highly of Joe Joe and proposed that he might be accepted as one of them. Almost all other elephants stood on their hind legs and trumpeted their approval except of course the envious Stouty who in the beginning objected.

Tummy tore off a creeper dotted with flowers and garlanded Joe Joe. Joe Joe shook trunks with all of them, including Stouty.