Have you ever heard about the big ugly brown bear? I am sure you have heard its story. No? That doesn’t surprise me because this is a story from a long time ago and yet not so long ago. Just over a hundred years ago, or so I was told, our planet was covered with forests. There were great big trees that had already lived hundreds of years. Among these forests, there were small and sometimes large clearings that were made for houses where humans like us lived. Of course none of those were as big as the cities we now know like Peterborough, London or Hyderabad. So among these forests there lived great big animals and small ones too. From furry rabbits to huge elephants, our planet earth was home to them all.
Now this story comes from up north. Where it is cold and snow stays on the ground for 6 months of the year. The country up north is now called Canada. Canada is home to some of the largest trees, tall and majestic, strong and mighty. Canada is just south of the Arctic circle, the home of the north pole and also home to the great white polar bears. Now the polar bears prided themselves on being tall, rugged, big, strong and yet beautiful and pristinely fair.
One day, a group of young polar bears ventured a little south to forage for food. While jumping in the river to catch their daily quota of fish, the young bears lost their way and headed into the thick woods of Canada, where the trees were as tall as the sky and thicker than the big bears could hug. As they looked around to figure out how to get back to their home up north in the snow, they chanced upon an equally lost big brown bear. I am sure you have heard of and even probably seen big brown bears. You may even have a soft cuddly stuffed bear toy at home that are fondly called teddy bears. But bears are anything but soft and cuddly. They are ferocious and frightening. Now the polar bears looked up at the strange bear that looked a lot like them but was brown. And the lost brown bear too was puzzled by these bears that looked a lot like its brothers and sisters but were all white. But as their first reaction, they growled at each other from a distance behind the trees, showing their fangs for good measure.
The polar bears outnumbered the brown bear and were confident and laughed at the little brown bear. The brown bear asked why they were laughing. And the polar bears told the brown bear of the land where they come from. Where everything was covered in snow and almost everything was clean and white. While the brown bear was obviously dirty and brown and of course ugly. The brown bear laughed and said where it comes from, the brown color helps her to be unseen among the trees. So that she can climb trees and drink the choicest honey. Now the polar bears were jealous and wanted a little bit of this honey that they had never heard of. So they decided to make friends with the brown bear, if the brown bear led them to a pot of honey. The brown bear happily led them on a quest for the best honey that the forest could give up. The polar bears were unused to the fresh fragrances of the early morning dew and the gentle breeze among the trees, as the brown bear sniffed its way to a big huge honeycomb. Then suddenly the big
bear stopped and looked up and started climbing the tall tree, for high up among the branches where you could hardly see, the bear knew the best honeycomb existed. Soon the polar bears climbed up too and were gorging on some of the freshest honey known to any bear. As soon as they had their fill, they opened their eyes and could see the snow covered land a little bit in the distance beyond the river. They now knew which way home was. The brown bear too could see its family in the distance and they all hugged happily as they prepared to head to their respective homes. Suddenly one of the polar bears turned to the big brown bear and flashed a honey covered smile and said, you are brown but you are not ugly. You are soft, cuddly and beautiful. And with that the bears parted ways and headed home!
No comments:
Post a Comment