World Elephant Day | A day for my most favorite animal

Today is World Elephant Day. Elephants are majestic in every way and their intelligence is well known. As a resident of South India, I don’t have to visit the zoo to see an elephant. They are usually seen near temples, especially during festivals. These magnificent beings are an integral part of Indian culture.

First impression

I saw an elephant for the first time when I was a little kid playing in the front yard of my grandpa’s house. I was awestruck by the elephant’s size and its “I crush everything on my path” walking style. Grandma and Grandpa became my ‘google’ and I started to ask lots of questions about the elephant.

My first drawing

My first drawing was an elephant. My grandpa, who is very good at drawing, taught me how to draw an elephant and the overall time taken for drawing an elephant was around 20seconds. Drawing of an elephant was my masterpiece on all drawing competitions during school days. Grandpa used to say, “Unni… when drawing an elephant, you should draw its tail like it is a broom, legs should look like pillars and ears should look like a giant leaf.” I miss those fun days very much.

Movies about elephants

Elephants are a central topic in many movies. I have watched some movies and some of them, that I remember are:

• Jumbo – This is a Bollywood animation movie(a proud moment for Indians). The animation and the songs are a joyful delight.
• Tom-Yum-Goong — Fulltime action movie by Tony Jaa. Heart-touching story of a friendship between a man and an elephant.
• Babar — Very old animation movie that reminds us of Mickey, Donald characters.

The list also contains Ice age movie series, Tarzan, Jungle Book and Dumbo.

Afterthoughts

I feel sad when I see videos of cruelty to elephants. They are tortured every day in circuses and workplace(especially for moving heavy timber). Elephants are very intelligent animals and they do have a wide range of emotions. Torturing them is a brutal sin.