A Local Encounter that Changed my Perspective - The one that got away
ANTARCTICA | Monday, 18 February 2013 | Views [6187] | Comments [17] | Scholarship Entry
She was the first one I saw.
Donned in a skin tight classic black and white suit, she stood out from the vast whiteness around. There was desolation in her eyes and despite not understanding her language, I could sense longing and despair in her words. She sat there, perched high on the rockeries; alone in the crowd, purposeless and forsaken. She opened her mouth but no words came out. Only cries that were drowned out by the hustle and bustle of the city around her.
“Her baby was taken away! There he took it! ”. All eyes focused on the culprit and in a flash he was gone …
Silence ensued. A group of us looked at each other, guilty that we were hapless.
In the medical profession, they taught me that there is always something you could do. As Hippocrates said “cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always”. But here I was, completely at a loss.
“She’ll have another one next year” someone from the back exclaimed.
I shot her a disgusted look as the word “irreplaceable” resonated through my head sung like how Beyoncé would.
But my biologist was right! In this ice-cold continent of Antarctica, where penguins are one too many, at least she will live to breed another day.
What I found disturbing was that her neighbors simply labored on unfazed, as though nothing had happened. No consolation. No sympathy. Some males even capitalized on this opportunity to steal stones from her nest.
“Such animals!”, only to realize the literal truth.
“The killer is back!”
Heads turned as we focused on the skua, which was black as death. With malicious intent in his eyes, he went for the kill.
Expecting the worst, we were shocked when the entire rockery of penguins banded together, heads held high, jugular veins distended, eyes filled with vengeance and beaks opened and shrieking in unison. The cacophony of it all was a commendable attempt to frighten off the lone crusader.
And it was successful.
With relief and my faith in the penguin community restored, I got up to leave as they no longer needed a watchdog.
“Bam!’ I had slipped and landed on my back. Penguins around me screeched and beat their wings as if in ecstatic mockery of my clumsiness.
I sniggered to myself in realization that we really aren’t that different after all.
Tags: Travel Writing Scholarship 2013
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