Whenever mortals are in danger, says the Gita, the Almighty assumes a novel avatar and descends on earth to save them. Dairy owner Beniram Rangdale says that in his case, He took the form of a mobile phone.
The 50-something resident of the Adivasi-dominated Baihar village in Balaghat district recently had a close encounter with death. He spent an agonizing three hours up on a tree with a furious tigress waiting below. Just when he thought it was all over, the phone came to his rescue.
“I realized that though I did not have a gun, the phone in my hand could be an equally potent weapon,” says Rangdale. He sent out a telephonic SOS to his friends and the search party that arrived soon after managed to scare the tiger away.
Five days later, the little handset has joined the resident deities who sit in the pooja alcove of the Rangdale household. He will not part with his lucky phone at any price, he says. Baihar is a heavily tiger-infested territory, barely 10 km off the Kanha national park, and escaping the jaws of a predator in these parts involves a huge amount of luck.
An unsuspecting Rangdale had left for the forest last Wednesday when his farm hand Radheylal reported a bullock missing. The duo noticed a movement behind a thick clump of bushes at the far end of a clearing and began to tiptoe towards it. They froze when they spotted a tigress, crouching to leap out of the thicket.
There was no time to run, recalls Rangdale. So, the two clambered up the nearest peepul tree, stopping only when they reached the top branches. When they peered down they saw the big cat and her two cubs clawing the tree trunk, grunting and roaring in rage. The animal even made an attempt to climb the tree but abandoned the attempt when she saw the cubs trying to emulate her.
The drama continued for good two hours. “The sun was about to set and I knew that we would not be able to hold for long. Either we would fall off or she would manage to climb up,” recalls Rangdale.
And then he heard the magic beep of the mobile lying forgotten in his pocket. Rangdale rang his friends and told them his story. Soon the entire hamlet started walking towards the jungle, armed with drums, lathis and torches. The commotion scared off the tiger and her cubs and she retreated into the deep wood.
This is the Rangdale family’s third mobile. The other two he sold off in exchange for new models but this one, a basic handset, will stay in the shrine. “It was God himself, as a mobile, who saved us,” states Rangdale firmly.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cellphone-saves-man-from-tigress/articleshow/30184646.cms
