Book review - The elephant whisperer by Lawrence Anthony

Elephants for me have been an object of absolute fascination right from a very young age.In Kerala you get to see them frequently in temple festivities. They even come to your house and you get to feed them bananas. After reading this book, I feel there is no bigger hypocrite than humans ,who are considered intelligent yet they resort to cruel ways to tame these huge species.It was indeed painful to see them at times with chains and tears in their eyes. This book recounts the experience of Lawrence Anthony's encounter with the wild in his game reserve named 'Thula Thula' in South Africa. He adopts a herd of elephants who would otherwise be shot as they were considered dangerous and went rogue many times. Lawrence tries to understand the past of the herd and gradually makes them a part of his life. I was completely bemused so many times when without words they spoke with each other and there was give and take of 'respect'. Lawrence says sometimes intention and intonation can communicate far more than mere words. They seemed to be more evolved than us as we fail to understand even with everything clearly said. Lawrence says anything in the wild doesn't attack humans unless they feel threatened. That makes sense when these days it's human behaviour that defies all logic. This book gave me a new perspective and suddenly 'animal instincts' sounds finer than 'human instincts'. I also don't think I would enjoy visiting a zoo after reading this book as I am convinced, the wild is where they truly belong and anything less than that is denying them who they are and where they must flourish. It's a rollercoaster of emotions as Lawrence Anthony takes you through his safari in the wild , weaving stories about love,loss and camaraderie.