The Queen of love:

Nerola’s egalitarian views were born out of a very bitter experience many years ago. When her great grandmother died, her grandmother, Karon Pohty Tynsong, was supposed to have been enthroned as the queen, because that is the practice in this matrilineal society. But Karon was still a young child, and so her relatives took over power, promising to hand it over when she became an adult.

But as fate would have it, Karon’s relatives began to plan a coup de tat. They starved her and her younger brother and sister, in addition to subjecting them to all kinds of inhumane treatment. The plan was to starve them until they died, so that there would be no heir to the throne. One day, Karon gathered her remaining strength, and fled into the Darang jungle with her emaciated siblings, swearing never to return.

“They were almost starved to death by that time,” said Nerola “and the jungle was their only hope of survival.” After trekking in this jungle for several hours, they became too exhausted to move on and had to find a resting place. Strange as it may sound, these children some how survived on rare fruits and roots, for several days.

Eventually, they began to succumb to hunger and fatigue, and they lost hope in life. In the middle of the night, as they rested on a rock, each on the other’s shoulder, shivering in the jungle’s cold, they were suddenly awoken by the roar of a Bengali tiger. Karon’s younger brother and sister took cover behind her, as they all trembled in fear.

“They all knew that they were going to die that day,” said Nerola “because no human being had ever survived a face to face encounter with a Bengali tiger. But Karon stood her ground and looked the mean tiger straight in its glowing eyes and said, ‘I know you have come here to eat one of us, but we have all suffered too much already and we are tired of living. Please, if you are going to eat one of us, you might as well eat all of us. I beg you not to leave any of us behind to suffer.’ ”

When Karon was through with talking, the tiger stopped roaring and edged closer to the three children, circling them, and sniffing them. They were trembling madly with fear, but none of them moved. Then something strange happened. The tiger began to tag at Karon’s dress, pulling her forward gently. Karon could not understand what was happening, until one of her siblings whispered softly in her ear, “It wants to take us somewhere. Let’s follow it.”

And then the three children followed the tiger for several miles through the dark jungle in total silence. After a while, they spotted their village at a distance, but they continued to trek behind the tiger in silence. It took them out of the jungle, and through their village, until it stopped at the front door of their home!

Posted by Caring Lives at 3:10 AM