An amazing story, Kanishk Tharoor’s 'Elephant at Sea' is the journey of an elephant - a gift for the princess of Morocco - from Kozhikode, Kerala to Rabat in Morocco. As the story advances, it transforms into a journey through the psyche of the elephant. It deals with the bigger issue, of relocation of the animal, from its natural habitat and its country; of loneliness, its love for water and the dream of lowering itself into mud at the end of the day. Nevertheless the animal adapts to its new environment, without protest. The consciousness of the loss of individuality does not daunt the elephant, which surrenders readily and ambitiously to a new lifestyle and a new identity.
The love of water translates into a bigger dream - the mahout’s dream. The elephant on seeing its reflection in the pond yearns for the sea. Towards the end of the story, the mahout whispers to the elephant, to stop dreaming of home or of him… “dream of the sea, my life, dream of the sea”. When the mahout disappears, the reader is forced to speculate whether the “dream of the sea” is truly the dream of the ‘Keralite’; the dream to seek new countries across the seas, to escape from the potholed roads, the clanging traffic and the multitudes of people who inhabit the small southern state of Kerala.
It is the story of communication techniques employed by mahouts in Kerala, to command the elephant and of the willingness to be commanded as revealed by the temperament of the elephant – “Elephants respond to confidence, to certainty…they understand that the order of the universe dictates to them a certain place, a certain rank, a certain dependence on the demands of others”. The mahout, who by profession, is raised to teach implicit obedience and ride elephants, knows that “command” is in his blood; to ‘follow’ and be ‘followed’, which incidentally is also the tacit decree of contemporary social media.
The elephant barely escapes an attempt by the cleric–mayor, who considers it a prerequisite, to detect its religious affiliations, which would ultimately overhaul everything else and define its whole life.
This remarkable story of an elephant’s journey from Kozhikode to Morocco, spans countries and continents and keeps one spellbound till the end.
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