A Hunter

‘A Hunter’

-Ashim Kumar Kar

Note:-  Names of all places, persons, etc. are fictitious.

Satyabhushan was a hunter. Hunting was his hobby. His friends were calling him with nick name as Satya. Satya has killed so many innocent animals and birds just for fun. After killing these innocent animals and birds he was feeling very proud of himself and thinking himself as a brave soldier.

His wife was totally against killing of these innocent animals.

Even though Satya has killed so many animals, he has never got a chance to hunt a tiger. He always wanted to hunt a tiger and waiting for the opportunity.

It was Sunday. In the morning he was having his breakfast along with his wife. At that time one of his close friends Yatin came.

Satya surprised after seeing Yatin in the early morning.

Yatin came near to Satya and said, “Satya, there is a good news for you. I heard, a tiger is going to a nearby pond in the forest at night to drink water. If you wish then we can go there for hunting the tiger.”

After hearing these words from Yatin he became very happy. In the morning itself his friend has brought this good news.

He planned with Yatin how to kill the tiger. He did not want to go this rare opportunity out of hand.

As per the plan, in the evening before the sunset, Satya and Yatin left home for the forest. They could easily reach to the spot near the pond before the sun set as Yatin knew the place.

They climbed a tree near to the pond and both sat on it. They had brought with them a gun, a torch, a rope and a gunny bag. The gun was kept ready with fully loaded.

After the sun set it did not take much time to become dark. They were waiting for the tiger.

Yatin saw on his wrist watch it was around nine o’clock.

After sometime they heard some noise. The noise was just like somebody walking on the dried leaves spread on the field near the tree.

It was a full moon day. Things were quite visible due to the moon light. They saw a tiger was moving towards the pond.

Yatin pushed Satya by his right hand, “Satya, see …”

“Yes, please keep silence.”

The tiger went close to the pond and drank little water from it. But … there was a surprise. They saw it was not a tiger but it is a tigress. The tigress was not alone but she had two little cubs along with her. The cubs were playing with each other and moving around the tigress.

After sometime, Satya planned to target the tigress. He lifted the gun and pointed it towards the tigress.

The cubs were continuously playing with their mother.

Satya was just ready to press the trigger. He stopped. When he was to press the trigger the cubs came very close to the tigress and he could not shot.

Similar situation occurred so many times. Whenever Satya tried to press the trigger the cubs unknowingly came close to their mother and Satya could not target it.

Seeing the little cubs’ affectionate with the tigress Satya became quite disturbed.

He recalled his childhood. When his mother died he was just seven years old.

He still remembered how he was weeping near to his mother’s dead body.

He became very emotional. He thought if he kills the tigress the cubs will miss their mother. It will be similar to the condition he had in his childhood.

Now, he realized how big mistakes he had done by killing so many innocent animals and birds.

He thought he cannot kill a tigress mother in front of her cubs.

He kept his gun on his lap and explained his feelings to Yatin. In the beginning Yatin was slightly annoyed, but later he understood Satya’s feelings.

After some time the tigress along with the cubs left the place and went towards the dense forest.

Satya and Yatin were waiting for the morning.

Early morning, they left the forest. While leaving the forest Satya had thrown his gun into the pond.

After reaching home he saw his wife was not coming close to him, instead she tried to avoid him. He understood his wife was probably angry thinking that he has killed once again an animal.

He called her politely and explained the full story.

He promised to his wife that in future he will never go for hunting.

After she heard these words from Satya, his wife was very happy. She smiled and said, “Really, you are… “

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