Of Men and mice

It was a cool September dawn. Dark blue hue of the sky was contemplating turning pink, as a truck skidded noisily over the gutter cover on Janpath causing the rat “Drat” lying beneath the cover to wake up, startled! Smiling dreamily, Drat turned on its huge well-fed belly, mentally thanking heavens there was this cosy haven to protect it from the winter, and keep it cool in the sweltering summer. It pitied the wretched cats who crept about, even in broad daylight, living a dog’s life amidst asinine humans. The brainless cows were equally loathsome, and the street dogs sheer asses, who were faithful to humans instead of dogs!  Drat concluded that higher intellect could only be found in rats and humans. That’s why John Steinbeck had written “Of Mice and men.”  

Crevices in the gutter-lid began to filter down some pale light, as the day was just breaking. Suddenly a voice from the heavens also filtered down, exhorting Drat to awake arise and shine, and to go forth and make a difference to the beleaguered world. Dawn-vision was like a new-born baby, with the rosy hue pervading its pink cheeks aligned across the bluish skies. With an active mind and active body one could do wonders as limitless possibilities and myriad opportunities existed in this moment. In such a positivity charged atmosphere the rat could not resist itself, and, slapping itself awake, began making a mental list of what could be done to change the human world as of now.  For he was a firm believer in Power of the Now( ). Drat opened his pen and started scribbling the views of an animal concerned about humankind….

Firstly, human verbal abuses should not contain derogatory phrases like “You pig”, “You jackass”, “You skunk”, “You donkey”, “You vermin or “You bitch”  which tend to demean poor animals, who don’t even know their implications. When one human is verbally abusing and insulting another human he should refrain from referring to an animal, who are innocent of human machinations. Instead he may use : “You human.” That would be more insulting!

Secondly, Drat reasoned that since humankind is most unkind, it needs to learn basic kindness and human values from animals. Why not organize a training session for humans and invite animals and birds to be the expert panelists. The donkey could lecture on resilience, the dog on faithfulness, the tiny ant on hard work, the camel on conservation, the crow on strategy, the bat on perspectives, the ox on power, the wise owl on maturity, the elephant on memory, the cow on kindness, the giraffe on vision, the tortoise on steadfastness, the bear on strength and the lizard on patience. The Clever fox could do the Summing up making sure everybody’s satisfied and happy. Animals can certainly teach Men human values !

Thirdly, humans should be more respectful and sensitive towards other living organisms. Towards that end Drat decided there should be a new law that protects and preserves the dignity of animals. Animals birds and insects are not pushovers that can be treated with disdain, cruelty and callousness. Being magnificent creations of the creator they too should have some fundamental rights and statutory safeguards, just like humans. For instance when ill-treated, mules and donkeys should have the legal right to kick their masters. Similarly, monkeys who are underfed and made to perform street-shows should be entitled retaliate by biting their tormentors on weekly basis. The law should ensure respect, dignity and safety of all species of animals, including pet animals, and cruelty to animals should be made a cognizable offence.

Lastly, performing experiments on helpless mice rats guinea-pigs toads and lizards should be banned outright. Why should these animals sacrifice their entire lives to the cause of a single human inhuman medical experiment. Why cant humans experiment on humans when the benefit will accrue to humans only ?

Drat shut his gold Parker pen, and went off to sleep again, satisfied that he had drawn up a good White Paper to send to the Animal Newspaper for publishing. Perhaps it would help make humans more humane and sensitive towards animals and all living species ………

(Devjit Singh)