Conversation with daughter-26

Me: I read an amazing story today. There is this British explorer deep inside a forest in Africa. With him is one of those Bushmen. Suddenly, in their vicinity, a lion hunts down a deer and kills it.

Daughter: Appa, is this one of the gory animal stories that you keep watching on National Geographic Channel?

Me: No. This has got something more. Let me continue. At the precise moment when the lion hunts down the deer, the Bushman points his finger in that direction and shouts “Gavangai”.

Daughter: What does that mean?

Me: That’s the mystery. The explorer was not sure if the Bushman was pointing to the lion or the deer or the tree or the grass or the hills beyond. So, he never knew what the word Gavangai stood for.

Daughter: So, what’s the rest of the story?

Me: The explorer lived for another 40 years, travelling all over Africa to find out what ‘Gavangai’ meant. He did not succeed. Finally, when he was all alone on his death bed, just before he breathed his last, it struck him that Gavangai meant ‘dying’. The Bushman had tried to tell him that the deer was dying. Yes, now the explorer knew. He died in peace. Is it not a moving story?

Daughter: Hey, wait a minute. If the explorer realized it only at the moment of dying and he was all alone, how do we know what went through his mind?

Me: The explorer wrote his memoirs posthumously. It’s all in there.