Day 14 - Slave and Master

A recent article caught my eye on Mani Ratnam's movie 'Ravan' being shot in the jungles of Kerela with Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

An elephant brought to the set for shooting went on a rampage and killed its mahout. Then it uprooted trees and caused a scare among the people at the shoot. The crew had to wait for quite some time before they could return back to their hotels.

The article got me thinking on the relationship between a trained and a trainer in such a situation. Its almost a relationship of slave and master. The relationship, I guess, is based on fear. Fear that the slave has of the master and fear that the master can exercise on the slave.

It's interesting to note that when it comes to humans and animals, the slave (animal) is usually the physically stronger kind who can easily harm the puny master (human).But the human is able to completeley control the animal and make it do whatever the human wants to. It's sad that humans can do this to animals - domesticating them through fear and emotional control. What is it that drives an animal who is much stronger than a human to bow down and obey his every command? What goes on in the brain of the animal that makes it afraid of the human? What is the fear factor that drives out all independence from the animal and makes it subserviant to the human?

The master also has his limits to which he can drive the slave. Once that is crossed the slave will react violently and try to break free from the shackles. This has happened to many times in history too. All freedom struggles are basically the fact that the people who feel enslaved have fought to break free from these shackles of their 'masters'. The same thing happened on the sets of 'Ravan'.

According to reports the mahout kept poking the elephant everytime there was a visitor on the set and make him do a namaste. This happened throughout the day. I guess at one point the elephant just got pissed and kept his foot down (pun intended).

But the reports say something interesting post the incident. Apparently the elephant kept trying to rouse the mahout and did not realise for quite some time that the mahout was dead. Once it realised that it went on a rampage uprooting trees. I found that quite interesting.

Did the elephant think that it had done a mistake and the get angry at itself? Was the elephant still afraid that the mahout may get up and punish him severely? Was the rampage an act of sadness or an act of happiness? Or was the elephant intelligent enough to think that it has to go back to the stable and will get punished by the other mahouts? I guess the answers are with the elephant only.

The relationship between any two beings should be a symbiotic one that benefits both and not a parasitic one. Only then will the relationhsip grow and become something beautiful. A relationship will never grow if there is only a give and a take - there has to be equal give and take from both parties.

Any relationship - love, friendship, colleauges - should be one of equals for it to grow. A master-slave relationship will always have an expiry date - in this case it was that of the mahout!