At the book launch at the Residency Coimbatore 15/12/2013.

L> Copy of RUMBLE being inaugurated by Mr Manoharan, Chief Vet of Southern Forests.

R> Being interviewed by Mrs. Shobhana Kumar.

The invite card for the Launch.

Indian Express Article on the Launch. (15 Dec 2013)

Images from the Inaugural Coimbatore Literary Festival - 2013 held on 23-24 February 2013

Sivaram Hariharan reads his upcoming novel. From LtoR: Sivaram Hariharan,

Shobhana Kumar, Prof Anand Lal, Srividya Sivakumar, Air Commander Vania

PREFACE:

AT THE ONSET: RUMBLE is a fictional story of an elephant in the wilds of my beloved home state of Kerala in Southern Bharat (India). Regardless, wherever possible I have taken the utmost care to make a totally realistic description of wild elephant behaviour, the facts of which I have gathered from various books and documentaries on wild elephants, and most importantly my invaluable periodic treks made into the Southern Niligiri wilds of Ooty-Masinagudi and the breathtaking wilds of Top Slip and pristine Parrambikkulam, both near the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. The priceless first hand information garnered from many knowledgeable locals, forest guards, and also temple mahouts in greater Kerala was invaluable in the writing of this novel. RUMBLE also deals with human-pachyderm interactions in crucial parts, but in a distinct context. Incidentally, infra-audio-rumbles are the chief manner by which elephants communicate with one another in the wilds.

In the context of this novel, I’m reminded of a soul stirring Mohammad Rafi song, Nafrat ki Duniya ko Chod kar Pyaar ki Duniya mein, Khush Rehna Mere Yaar, from the 1971 Bollywood movie, Haathi Mera Saathi, which in its own way, pioneered the message of conservation by expressing outrage over the killing of an elephant by man. In this regard, the song was ahead of its time and it also aptly came before the launch of PROJECT TIGER in 1972 by the Government of Bharath with the view to save the then rapidly fading national animal, the tiger. Coming back to the Bollywood movie itself, in that tragic scene portraying the above Rafi song, a distraught and inconsolable hero, played so beautifully by the legendary Rajesh Khanna, is seen mourning over the hearse carrying the dead body of his pet elephant, Ramu, who had been cruelly shot down by a bunch of callous humans. That immortal song was sung with equal melancholy and emotion by the great Rafi in his own inimitable style and golden voice and one of the lines in the song so aptly reflects the attitude of human society today towards the killing of animals:

Jab jaanwar koi

isaan ko maare

Kehte hain duniya mein

Veshee use saare

Ek jaanwar ki jaan aaj insaanon ne le hai

Chup kyun hai sansaar

(When an animal kills a human, it is termed as a rogue and a killer. But today when a group of humans have so cruelly killed an animal why is the world silent?).

Another pioneering movie on conservation came from the Kannada film industry in the form of the timeless hit "Gandhadhagudi", starring the late and erstwhile legend, Rajkumar. This movie also championed wildlife conservation, especially the starting scene where Rajkumar starring as a honest and courageous forest officer makes a stellar speech where he says that forest preservation and wildlife conservation are of paramount importance so that posterity can see the animals in flesh and blood rather than be forced to remain content with just photos in books.

Today the Asiatic elephant, more than its African cousin (also potentially endangered) is living a precarious existence in the last remaining and fast diminishing wild tracts of Asia. It requires more than a song, more than a lone voice of conscience to get things really moving in regards to protecting the animal and also its habitat. In fact habitat protection and establishment of key ele-migration corridors are vital keys to the survival of this magnificent creature that is supposed to be the very embodiment of the Hindu God, Lord Ganesha himself. In other places also, Hindu mythology reserves a special place for the pachyderm in the form of holy devotee elephants like Gajendra. The six tusked white elephant Airaawathan is the designated carrier of the King of the Gods in the Hindu pantheon, Indira. Even in real life, in recent history, the annals and rich temple lore of Kerala is crown studded by the life of that great devotee elephant, the late Shri Guruvayoor Keshavan, whose real life exploits and devotion to Lord Guruvayurappan and exemplary intelligence of human levels are legendary to say the least. The beautiful Malayalam movie, Guruvayoor Keshavan, that was based on the magnificent bull's life is still afresh in the collective memories of all Malayalees. Who can forget that beautiful song rendered by the golden voice of Yesudas in that movie: Navakaabhishekam kazhinnyu....a masterpiece of devotional music centered aptly on the bull's devotion to Lord Guruvayoorappan.

I conclude this short introduction with a Hindu prayer from the immortal Vedas in homage of Lord Ganesha. This will be followed by a recent blog of mine on an African elephant forum. The excerpt from the novel follows after that.

OM, Ganaanaamtva ganapatigum havaamahe, kavim kaveenaam upamashravasthamam.

Jyestharaajam brahmanaam brahmanaspatha aana-shrunvann-ootibhi-s-seeda saadhanam.

OM Shree Mahaa Ganapathaye Namaha:

(We invoke your holy name O lord Ganesha, the master and source of all intelligence and the master of the Vedas. O great lord, please annihilate all the obstacles on our path and take us to our goals without any trouble by giving us your full blessings and protection.)

Recently, the great Amboseli National Park in Kenya lost a prime bull named Kalume at the age of 44 and here's what I blogged in his honor to which the great Elephant expert, Dr. Cynthia Moss replied with magnanimity..

I salute this worthy ele-warrior

Sun, 2009-08-09 17:50 by sivaram

Yes.. a prime bull like Kalume is indeed a warrior.. Actually, I can see that he was born in 1965, just one year before my own birth in 1966...

But the challenges that I have faced in my human life to come this far to the age of 43 pales like a micron in front of the insurmountable odds that Kalume would surely have faced in those unforgiving wilds in getting through his 44 years of action packed life: constant threats from poachers, pestilence, drought, ambitious rival bulls ever intent to climb the ladder of dominance in bull society, attacks from ambitious hungry rogue male lion coalitions longing to get a piece of Kalume during his calf years (one mistake then by his matriarchal herd when confronted by the brutes of the African night and he would have gone and not even experienced the power of adult bull-hood, the heady feeling of invincibility in musth, the mating jousts and other rights as a prime bull), or as happens so many times in these wilds, just plain misfortune that sometimes cuts short so many promising prime-lives even before they begin....

Even though this great ele-warrior fell short of at least one more decade of life in these African wilds, I still salute this worthy warrior.. for even making it this far... Only his own deep inner thoughts, his ele-conversations that he had over the years with the herd matriarchs and other prime bulls and his prodigious ele-memory embossed in his brain that have now sadly departed with him carries the full impact of his great life.. How are we mere mortals with our finite intelligence to know what the great bull saw, heard, and felt through his own senses..what were his lessons in life.. what was the invaluable wisdom that he had garnered from the wilds when he lived...and was this knowledge far superior to what the eco-scientists of today know??? one wonders..

We Hindus (I'm from India) worship the elephant as a God... the elephant headed God GANESHA who represents timeless WISDOM and who is the CONQUEROR OF ALL OBSTACLES and now I reverentially pray.. OM SHRI GANESHAAYA NAMAHA... (salutations to the elephant god)..in honor of the departed Kalume..

Shiva Iyer

090809

Thank God Ganesha for helping me find this great discussion forum on elephants. Honored to be a member here .....

www.sivaramhariharan.com

• reply

Ele-Warrior

Sun, 2009-08-09 17:56 by cmoss

Thank you so much for this beautifully written and heartfelt posting. It is so good to know that there are people out there that understand and care about elephants the way you do.

The author also acknowledges the contribution of Mrs Madhuri Jadhav for help regarding Marathi dialogues in this book.

Following is an excerpt from RUMBLE:

Copyright 2009: No part of this excerpt shall be reproduced in any form, part, or manner without the explicit written permission of the author Sivaram Hariharan.

EXCERPT

Do elephants dream?? But Ganesha certainly was doing just that. He had just returned from his bath so lovingly administered to him by his mahout Keshavan and had a hearty meal of rice balls mixed with select herbs, followed by four huge yellow banana bunches, each bunch containing at least 1000 little yellow bananas. This was washed down with a mini drum of sweet paanakam; a drink made of jiggery and cardamom. This repast had completely sated Ganesha as he was escorted back to his ele-stable and chained. Almost immediately the bull had gone to sleep on his foot as elephants naturally and so easily do. As he descended into the depths of the sleep world, he started dreaming. And suddenly he saw vivid images of elephants running all over the place trumpeting in panic and terror in a place that was faintly reminiscent to Ganesha. It came somewhere from the depths of his childhood in those grasslands lost in the mists of time, a past so distant and yet seemed so near. This dream had visited him only a couple of times in his life before and each time Ganesha had clearly heard the boom that felled one elephant after another in a bleeding mess. And then his dream shifted to another one…

Where did this one come from? Was it the collective pachydermal consciousness of the species honed by evolution through the eons? And he saw that giant saber-tooth perched on top of the rock staring menacingly at him, the muscles of its chest and arms bulging like a huge spring coil and the rapier claws unsheathed; claws and those mighty canines and muscle that could easily bring down an adult woolly mammoth and disembowel it. The roar of the mighty cat pierced and reverberated through the entire length and breadth of his hairy body. Had Ganesha’s deep subconscious now peeped into an eons-ancient past way deep into his ancient ancestry? In another life, had he roamed the cold frosty wastes of an ice-age as a giant bull mammoth?

And then the dream changed again and this time he was surrounded by a throng of humans rushing in a swarm and there was a huge clank and sparks flew as iron hit iron. And there were cries of humans and horses in their death throes, the smell of fresh wounds and flowing blood, the madness of murder in his own eyes as well as the humans sitting on top him and egging him on, his warrior master and his mahout. He could feel the weight of his armor covering his forehead and face, his eyes straining through narrow slits as he lumbered forward and yes there were others of his kind rushing forward along with him. And then he saw even more of his kind except that they were rushing headlong into him with their trunks raised and trumpeting their mad anger at him. And then it was spears and swords raining all over, some of them impaling his huge body, but the bull did not feel even the slightest of pain. Ganesha was possessed by the madness of battle and moreover he was thoroughly inebriated by palm toddy and all sorts of doubts had evaporated out of him. And now he totally bulldozed into the big bull coming from the opposite side and with his trunk entwined in his opponent’s he pushed back with a mighty heave. The opposing bull lost balance and went down crashing, instantly crushing one of the two humans who were sitting on him toppled as they were from their perch in that elephantine collision. The other human was luckier as he had fallen to the side and had narrowly avoided the huge mass of granite flesh. But his luck was short lived. In the next instant his skull was shattered by a giant hammer thrown by Ganesha’s warrior-master who now bellowed in the madness of blood lust tinged victory.

And then Ganesha heard that familiar blood curdling trumpet, a clear call for battle to the death in bull elephant society. A huge colossus of grey granite flesh lumbered steadily towards Ganesha and even at that distance he could clearly recognize that scent, over all the other zillion of scents on the battle ground. And again there was that blood curdling trumpet and this time the sound shook Ganesha out of his reverie, back into the present. His dreams were now turning into a nightmare in front of his sleep-groggy eyes. Escorted into the elephant stable with a plethora of cow elephants prodding and cajoling him on was the tuskless makhna Dundhubi. Ganesha stepped back with chagrin and fear in his eyes. No matter where he went, it seemed his fate was inevitably entwined with that of his nemesis.