KECHO SOUP (Rescue Operation of a Tortoise)

It was morning of October 21, 2009. My mother had just served me a steaming hot cup of tea. I was about to lift the cup to my tea-passionate lips and generously let them have the chance of having the divine first sip of tea of the day when the only footman in our household came inside the room and announced, “O, Master, there is an un-invited guest at the outer-gate to the homestead.”

I quickly settled the tea cup back on the saucer with utmost care and followed the footman as if I was charmed. There, already a few feet inside the gate it was lumbering steadily along the walking track into the homestead. I could feel the surge of simmering overwhelm gripping me from head to toe while my eyes revelled at the sight of our uninvited guest, a moderate-sized tortoise.

I chuckled, ‘That should be the sign of some good fortune coming along in my life today.’ “Kecho! Kecho!,” I cried out involuntarily like a teenager who had just seen a tortoise for the first time in life, instantaneously I bowed down till my hands could reach the tortoise, and tried to shovel it up with my cupped hands. No sooner had I touched it than the tortoise withdrew its head inside its hard shell.

We had no rains in our part of the world for several moths then. The place where the tortoise had taken birth and sheltered, a small water body across the road from our homestead I guessed, had got dried up. Perhaps our guest was out in search of a new moist habitat, and a few drops of water which it had had no occasion to chance upon in days of such dry spell that had parched everything. It was an arduous journey it had undertaken to survive the hostile weather on the planet. I wondered how it could cross the busy state highway and escape coming under the speedily rolling wheels of the huge container trucks that incessantly plied on the road.

For a while I played with it like a belligerent kid. But then soon the fun paled and a debilitating cloud of doubt and fear descended upon me. ‘Could I rehabilitate it?’ I began scheming. I wondered if I could take it to the nearest Crocodile Breeding Centre at Tikarpara, an obscure spot of civilization and hectic scientific activity, nestled deep, some 200 kilometers from Barpali, in the dense forests of Central Odisha.

But then I was afraid I had severe constraint of time and money to afford undertaking any such a lofty and brilliant ‘save animals in distress’ project. I then briefly fiddled with my gray matter and this brilliant idea popped up in the head, the only alternate option I could have had, ‘O boy, just leave nature’s wealth to the providential care!’ There was yet another idea- ‘take it to another pond some distance away, the Gahir Bandha (pond) in the Lord Shiva Temple Complex at the nearby town of Nuapada.’

Intent on taking my uninvited guest to a safer habitat at Lord Shiva’s temple at Nuapada, I ventured out on a sojourn through the town with Mr. Kecho perched on my carefully held out palms. I had travelled barely a few yards when I bumped on Fadu, who seeing Mr. Kecho in my hand grinned and inquired, “Hey buddy, looks like you are up to a grand lunch, Kecho soup and all, right?” I was taken aback by his weird perspective.

Though I had known that restaurants served tomato-soup, vegetable-soup and mushroom-soup, and all other kinds of soup but had never heard of Kecho-soup ever being served anywhere around here. We human beings, for sure, have an insatiable hunger for all kinds of things, be it food, money, reputation or even se­­x. I quickly excused myself from this connoisseur of culinary delicacies and moved on. The second guy I met was Sunil, a decent guy from Marwadi community. He suggested that I put it in his well at the backyard of his homestead. But by then I had started disbelieving everybody and I blurted out a big and firm "NO". I wanted my baby to live its life-time and grow up to its natural size as an adult. I didn’t want it to be confined in a well having a perimeter of only six feet for the rest of its life. 

Perhaps for the first time in its life, Kecho travelled a distance of 200 meters in an amazingly short time of only 15 minutes. Breaking all the Hindu norms, ushered the hapless creature inside the temple sanctum sanctorum for lord Shiva's blessings. From there I took it to the pond. The moment it could get a glimpse of water, its tiny legs began taking massive strides, the last stride almost akin to a big leap, eventually gliding into the water.

I stood there on the bank with my gaze following the course of the movement of the tortoise. Hardly a few seconds had passed when I saw Kecho swimming back to the shore and stopping where I stood. Its joyous looking eyes were trying to meet mine as if it was trying to say, ‘My dear friend thank you for saving my life. I have found a new home. Be blessed!’ It turned back and slipped into water again.

By the time I returned home, my tea had already frozen. And there was my mother yelling at me for my being wasteful. But I was smiling inside.

This article has been published by Dimdima the children's magazine of Bharatiya Vidya Bhaban. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan was founded in 1938 at Mumbai by the great visionary, statesman, philosopher and philanthropist Sri K. M. Munshi with the blessings of the father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi. Here is the link of it: 

http://www.dimdima.com/mypage/article.asp?Tid=981&pg=1&q_title=Kecho

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E. KIRAN MOHAN (the writer)
C\o. Dr. E. R. Rao (M.D.)
Tehsil Chowk,
At\PO - BARPALI : 768 029
Odisha, India
Cell # +918249314972
kiranbima@gmail.com