Heart of the wild
APARNA MENON
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“Cleo, a blue Nilgai, gave us insights into the not-so-wild hearts of the wild.”
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Cleopatra, a one day old Nilgai calf, came into our lives at Alwar in Rajasthan. My husband, an army officer, was posted there. She was found abandoned in thick grass close to our house. We brought her home and I fell in love with this frail and beautiful creature.
Cleo grew into a beautiful calf and was a really very well behaved. Though she stayed inside the house with us, she never dirtied the house and would follow me wherever I went.
She loved to play with our three-year-old son, and he enjoyed her company too. On many occasions I found them both sitting together in our garden admiring nature.
Feeling blue
The Nilgai, or the blue bull, is India’s largest antelope, found in the northern and central plains. The males are as tall as horses and are iron blue in colour. Females are shorter and smaller built and are sandy brown in colour. Like all female Nilgai, Cleo too had beautiful eyes and white and black ‘socks’. The calves like all mammals live on milk for a few weeks and then feed on grass and leaves.
Two months later, we had to leave her as we had to go out of town and moreover, she could fend for herself.
We left her with the jawans and soon, she began mixing with other Nilgais in the area but would always come back to the barracks in the evening.
When we returned after a couple of months and we went to see her. She came close to us and ignoring me, she went up to my husband and rubbed herself against him. The moment I tried to touch her, she moved away. Tears welled up in my eyes and I realised that she would never forgive me for going away.
By the time we moved out of Alwar, Cleo was spending more time in the jungles and would stray towards the barracks only occasionally. Though I left Alwar with a heavy heart, I was glad she had mixed well with her kind and would hopefully be a part of a herd soon. This experience gave us an insight into the not-so-wild hearts of the animals we call ‘wild’.
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