-----Inspired from "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London, and "Dui Paakhi" by Rabindranath Tagore---
Once upon a time, there was a small, beautiful, countryside village in a faraway land. It was surrounded by green farms and fields. The fields merged slowly into the wide abandoned grasslands and across the gushing mountain brook, became a thick forest. In the forest lived wild animals : lions, hyenas, jackals, deer, wild buffaloes, zebras; birds, rodents, and insects. The villagers never crossed the grasslands, because the wild animals often came to the brook to drink water. Sometimes, wild animals would stray into the grasslands for food, but then would retreat harmlessly back to the forest. Beyond the forest was a beautiful mountain range, etching the northern horizon of the village.
The farmers grew crops; and ran dairy and poultry farms. In the growing season, they cultivated paddy, lentils, and vegetables. Every morning, they milked the cows and collected the eggs. There were domesticated animals like dogs and cats, too. Bakeries, smithing, and carpentry workshops also ran, often employing the village youth.
In the village lived a kind-hearted middle-aged farmer named Dean, with his wife Alice. Dean worked in his small plot of land, growing vegetables. Alice often helped him during the planting and the harvesting seasons. Alice looked after their poultry farm, feeding grains to the hens and selling eggs. They worked hard during the day and spent their evenings with their 1-year-old cat Anna.
One day, during his usual work in the farm, while removing the vegetable foliage, Dean found a new-born lion cub abandoned in the heap. It was lying alone, with her mother nowhere in sight. Whimpering softly, it looked cold and famished. Her eyes could barely open. Dean called Alice from the poultry farm and showed her the cub. They picked her up and brought her home. Dean got a small box of hay to warm her, and Alice gave her milk. Anna the cat circled around the hay as the cub became content and was soon fast asleep. They named her Nora.
Nora the lion cub began growing in the warmth of a home. Anna and Nora played with each other and became friends. Neighbors were amazed at how a lion cub is growing up in a village. Anna, being older, often taught Nora to run up and down the stairs, to bite, to claw up a shrub, to jump over logs of wood, clean her paws and ears. Alice tied beautiful ribbons around their necks. Everyone said, 'Dean and Alice have two children'. Anna was taller than Nora, and often licked Nora's head and pawed her shoulders. When Anna circled around Dean's feet, Nora sat on Alice's lap. Anna sprinted her way around the house, while Nora followed her cautiously. Anna led, Nora followed. Soon, Nora began to walk like Anna, eat like Anna, sleep like Anna, play like Anna. But when Anna mewed, Nora softly growled. Everyone remembered that Nora was a lion.
Several months passed. Alice and Dean took Anna and Nora to the poultry or the fields during the day. The felines played around as their parents worked. Food was given to Nora along with Anna. Soon she became taller and stronger than Anna. Nora would now lick Anna's head and paw her shoulders. She began outrunning Anna, and breaking twigs which Anna could not. Nora would run towards the edge of the village towards the grasslands. Anna strolled within the farm, watching Nora sprint a circuit until Alice called her back. Nora returned and again became a 'cat' like Anna.
As the adolescent Nora began spending more time outdoors, her instincts woke, and she began yearning for the wild. She often ran to the grasslands to play rough-and-tumble, and returned home only when Dean called her back in the evening, screaming her name from the paddy field towards the north. Nora got wild flowers for Alice. One day, she reached the brook on her own and took a splashy bath in it. Soon, she was able to chase a hyena and smack it (Anna had never taught her to chase a mouse in the village). She began enjoying her wild unrestricted ways, growing confident in the wild. She began realizing that she was a lion : she was different from Anna.
As Nora grew bigger and stronger, Dean, Alice, and Anna began to get uncomfortable in her presence. She needed a larger box of hay to sleep in, and more food. Anna could still climb on the lap of Alice or Dean, but Nora was too big for them. Yet, they were known as the only family in the village owning a lion! They wanted Nora around, but not in the scale that Nora was turning out to be. The farm dogs were now wary of Nora : she towered over them. As her carnivorous instincts rose, Nora killed a rooster in the poultry. Alice and Dean were fuming that day. Nora was thoroughly reprimanded for her 'uncivilized' behavior. Anna smiled, later telling Nora that she had never been rebuked like this. Though being a carnivore herself, Anna never scratched another human or animal in the village. She always ate only when food was given to her by Alice or Dean. She advised Nora to mend her ways.
Nora, however, did not know what wrong she did. But she understood that killing another animal would not be acceptable in the human village. Nora did not like Anna's mewing, docile ways. She began growing apart from Anna. She began running away more often to the grasslands, where the grazing wild buffaloes and zebras often became her feast for days. She noticed that the raw meat with blood was tastier than the cooked food that Alice had been feeding her. One day, she carried her unfinished game back home, for her family to feast on. Alice and Dean threw a house party with that.
The next year, Anna had kittens in the corner of the poultry farm. She got busy looking after them. Alice and Dean began tending to her tiny grandchildren, and Nora was instructed to stay away from them. Nora left her busy family and began spending more time in the grasslands, sometimes crossing the brook to reach the forest. She would return home after enjoying a whole day in her natural habitat, getting tanned rolling in the open grasslands, soaking in the brook, or chasing wild buffaloes in the forest. Anna settled down as a familiar house-cat, and became almost disconnected from Nora. The feline friendship withered as their lives diverged.
By now, Nora was an adult lion. She was large enough that Dean could ride her with along with Alice. They had heard of the brook and the forest from Nora, and wished to see it (they knew they were safe with Nora alongside them). Nora was glad to oblige, wanting to take her parents into her own world. The word spread that Dean and Alice would be first in the village to explore the wild north. One day, Nora carried them majestically on her back to the grasslands. Dean and Alice had a long wonderful ride, as the whole village watched. Crossing the grasslands, Nora jumped across the brook into the forest, and brought back fresh honey for Alice and Dean. As they fished in the brook, Nora stood guard from the wild animals. As the sun set, Nora carried them back to the village. The whole neighborhood had a share of the honey, and toasted the couple for owning a lion.
But back home, once the honey was over, they felt increasingly alienated from Nora. They wanted a cat in her, like Anna. The battle of Nature vs. Nurture had begun long before anyone realized. Alice began losing her temper and telling Nora, "Why cannot you behave like Anna?" She could not accept that Nora was 'bigger' than their house, 'bigger' than their farm, maybe even 'bigger' than the village. As Nora continued her lion ways, Dean knew the futility of trying to tame her. He tried to convince Alice, who reluctantly found solace in turning her attention towards Anna and the kittens. But as Nora became stronger, wilder, and fed herself in the forest, even Dean began getting insecure. Nora was beyond their expectations. He and Alice wanted the grassland rides, the wild games, the salmon from the brook, and the forest goodies through Nora, and the fame of being a lion-owner; but did not want to not pay the price.
Nora loved her foster parents, and wanted to make them happy. She also wanted to 'belong', having known Dean, Alice and Anna as her 'family' since birth. For sometime, she tried to be a Cat. She stopped going to the grasslands. She feigned meekness, stopped growling, ate only when Alice or Dean fed her, did not chase any rooster or dog, and stayed within the confines of the village. She attended to her parents as they worked in the field and in the poultry farm; and in the evening, sat at their feet. Alice and Dean seemed to be at ease. Alice told Anna that Nora was no longer a danger to her kittens. Anna, once again, warmed up to Nora. Staying in the village bored Nora, but she spent time fondling and warming Anna's kittens in the farm hay. She had long conversations with Anna. She told Anna, "I have seen wild cats in the forest, who hunt their prey, climb trees, run in the wild. Don't you want to try that?" Anna said, "I am safe and content in the village. I get food at the right time without moving a paw, and a warm bed to sleep in. I like it this way". Nora said, "The forest is so exciting". Anna said, "I am comfortable in a warm human home". Nora said, "Wild cats snarl at their enemies and chase them". Anna said, "I mew on cue. I please everyone and have no enemies". Nora said, "I cannot growl on cue!" Anna said, "Why don't you learn to mew instead?" Nora rested her case.
The villagers still remained cautious of her, but began treating her somewhat like Anna. They gave her treats, which Nora pretended to enjoy and be thankful for. But as weeks went by, this facade stifled Nora, who longed to return her natural habitat. She had lost her strength and the spark in her eyes. She had forgotten to roar and snarl. Trying to be a Cat was frustrating her. She wanted to sprint in the grasslands, not stroll around the village. She wanted to chase her dinner, not wait to be served. When the villagers petted her like they did the sweet mewing Anna, she nearly wanted to bite their hands! She wanted to be treated as a Lion, which she was. The domestic animals were controlled by their humans. Nora was longing for an unleashed life in the wild. She was determined to be herself. She was no longer sad of losing her foster family : she realized they will love her only if she behaved like a cat.
One night, she tore the ribbon around her neck with her sharp claws, and ran to the North. Crossing the grasslands, when she reached the brook, she panted and heaved a sigh of relief. She plunged into the water and soaked for a while. Rinsing away her past, she rose and looked at the sky. She told herself firmly, "This is my home from now". She began sleeping in the forest at night, and returned to the village only once in a few weeks. She began meeting her own species near the brook : the pride of lions soaked together in the waters and stretched their limbs, grooming each other. She began hunting with the pride, and sharing the game with them. She befriended other lionesses, grooming their cubs. She even had fought with a few lions, scaring them away from the little ones. She moved with them, having found her tribe. Running and fighting made her strength return, and her eyes sparkled in the thrill of it. In no time, she found her mate. She found her own den to settle, where her mate visited her.
As her returns became fewer and far between, Dean and Alice gave up on Nora. Anna's kittens had grown, and they began spending their evenings with them. One summer, Nora returned for one final time to bid goodbye to her foster family and the village; and ran majestically to the North; and lived in the forest happily ever after........
