Vaghachya Magavar By Vyankatesh Madgulkar

Once I had gone to the Mulshi Dam. One deer crossed our path, I took an aim and killed it. My friend Nimbalkar got down from the jeep and brought back the deer. He was astonished to see that the deer was a female deer, a doe and was also an expecting mother. We returned to Nimbalkar’s farm house in Kothrud. The deer was cleaned and cut. A full grown baby deer was found to be at peace inside the doe. Nimbalkar’s old mother was very upset to see this. She regretted our killing. Still, I would not say that it was this incident that made me leave the gun and rely more upon binoculars. On the contrary, as I grew not just physically but also with respect to my thinking, my mentality changed, I accepted new concepts. Now I feel that it is only the waywardness of the mind that prevents it from recognizing the importance of aliveness. Once we are able to bring ourselves out of this overlapping waywardness, then we suddenly see the magnitude of being alive, whether it is a human being or any other living being! And then, no one wishes to kill any other animal.