The world is my playing ground

At first, all I could see were just some unfinished cubical concrete constructions. I was a little skeptical at first, but following the lead of my host I stepped in, what I was going to find later, was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been-an Elephant Village.

There were 6 or 7 such buildings.As I was getting closer to the first one I realized that it was split in two by an interior staircase going up on the roof.On the right side of the stairs there was one single large room, where the elephant was kept and on the left side, the home of the driver where he lived with his entire family. At the entrance we were greeted with a humble Namaste by the man of the house and I could see hiding behind him 3 other small persons.

A few steps further and there she was.Her name was Laxmi, a 36 year old female elephant.Her massive appearance was only softened by her little, gentle eyes with long and expressive lashes.I had seen elephants before, but this was different, even if she was captive, she was still happy.That was the only feeling vibrating from her entire enormous body.At each human touch these baby like sounds were filling up the huge room and making it tremble.I was staring motionless at the way the skinny Indian man was making one of the largest mammals on Earth react.Raising her trunk, waving her huge ears and even peeing was her way to express happiness.The dirt, the smell of feces none of that matter anymore,everyone in the room was mesmerized by the bond that man had created with a wild animal.Trying to steal a bit of that magic, I started to caress and feed the elephant.Her skin was rough and hairy and, as my hands went down on her trunk I could feel with the ends of my fingers, here and there, some deep lines, like wrinkles I smiled at that silly thought and as I looked her in the eyes I felt she did the same.Hours went by and I still couldn’t take myself from her side. I left a part of me there that night and earned so much more in return.