Mark Shand on Tara"It was a long love affair with a country that ignited my passion for elephants. Fifteen years ago, I decided to write my next book about a journey across India. Purely on a whim, I decided to buy an elephant. "After all", I thought, 'what mode of transport would allow me a more wonderful insight into the magic and complexities of a land that, like its elephants, moves slowly and subtly'? After many weeks of searching for available elephants, fate led me to my future paramour, late one monsoon night on the outskirts of a village, in the eastern state of Orissa. There standing quietly, illuminated by the glow of the campfire were three elephants. My mouth went dry. I felt giddy, breathless. With one hind leg crossed over the other, she was leaning nonchalantly against a tree, the charms of her perfectly rounded posterior in full view, like a prostitute on a street corner. I knew then that I has to have her and I realised, with some surprise that I had fallen in love with a female Asian elephant. Then, I had no idea what pulled me, like a magnet to her that night. I did not even notice the other two elephants. Maybe it was her eyes - gentle dark brown pools of kindness, fringed by lashes long enough to suggest they were false. |
Or maybe, it was the way she stretched out her trunk and, with the utmost delicacy, explored my pockets searching for hidden goodies.. Or how she squeaked with excitement, flapping her huge ears, the ends of which were splashed with the palest of pink spots, when I tentatively offered her a banana for the first time. She was in pitiful condition, scrawny and starved, her ribcage clearly visible and her skin hanging in folds, like an ill-fitting suit. She looked at that moment, exactly what she was - a beggar - a beggar with a pronounced limp due to deep-rooted ulcer caused by the wicked metal-spiked shackles the mendicants had used to hobble her. But I know that I was never in control. She chose me. It was karma. After a series of complex negotiations she became mine. I called her Tara, which means 'star' in Hindi. Three hundred kilos of fodder each day and veterinary care soon restored Tara's health. Accompanied by an ingenuous Indian nobleman and gifted photographer called Aditya who taught me Indian ways and a drunken mahout called Bhim who taught me elephant ways, Tara allowed me to ride her a thousand miles or so across her country. My book 'Travels on my Elephant' is the account of our adventures together. I'm often asked how old Tara is. I refuse to answer. A gentleman should never disclose a lady's age. But I will give a clue. She is young enough to have children. I am now on quest to find the perfect husband." Mark Shand
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