autobiography of the wrong tiger

1. CHAPTER 16 – THE WRONG TIGER
Daksh Sehrawat V-A
I am a tiger. I was born in the beautiful and dense Terai jungle near Dehra. I had a
small family there and a lot of friends too. Every afternoon I used to play hide and
seek with my friends. One afternoon when I was hiding in the entangled roots of a
banyan tree, I heard some rustling behind the bushes. Then, I saw a human! He
was an old man. As he started approaching me, I felt a chill run down my spine. I
was very scared. My mom used to always tell me about cruel humans who hunt us
just for their fun. I started looking for my friends, but there was nobodyin sight.
The man then sat down in front of me with a smile. He patted me lovingly. And
instantly I knew that he was not threatening at all. He gently picked me up and
took me to his home. It wasn’t as big as the jungle but it was very colorful and
beautiful. The old man’s wife named me ‘Timothy’. I loved my new name. At first,
I was given milk but I had problems digesting it, so later I was given raw mutton
and cod liver oil. It was followed by a more tempting diet of pigeons and rabbits. I
no longer had to hunt prey. I was served food whenever I was hungry.
I was provided with two companions – Toto the monkey and a small mongrel
puppy. Toto the monkey was very mischievous! He used to always irritate me by
pulling my tail then quickly climbing up the curtains when I get angry. At first, I
was very afraid of the puppy, his loud bark was very scary. But as time passed, we
became good friends. I used to allow him to crawl on my back and rest there.
My favorite member of the family was the old man’s grandson. I used to play with
him for hours! I would creep closer to him and then suddenly make a dash for his

2. feet, rolling over my back and kicking with delight, I would pretend to bite his
ankles. As I started growing older, I started to feel a change in me. I started craving
more and more meat. And the desire to hunt, inside me, started growing. At night,
after everybody went to bed, I would sneak out and hunt some birds in the poultry.
Oh! How delicious those birds were! There were so many varieties! The birds,
hens, chickens, and turkeys of so many colors. Due to my hunts, the family
members started chaining me up more often. I could no longer hunt. It was no fun
anymore. So to pass my time, I started stalking the cookaround the house but
everybody mistook my mischief for villainous intent. I was very sad that they
thought I wanted to eat Mahmoud. I would never do that to any family member.
But, nobodytrusted me. They sent me off to a zoo in Lucknow.
I was locked up in a huge cage. I could see many animals around me but they were
not friendly at all. The leopard who used to stay in the cage next to mine was the
meanest. Every day and night, I would remember the pleasant memories that I had
with the family. I missed them a lot but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I
still had a tinny hope that they would come back for me.
After a few months, I started feeling sick. I had difficulty breathing and got very
tired easily. 3 days back, the guard noticed it and brought a doctor, I was diagnosed
with pneumonia. The doctorinformed that I had only had a few days left. My end
is near, but I just hope I get to meet grandfather and his family one last time.