Snapshot

Quiz week is one of those times when laws of relativity, gravity, sphericity, electricity and all become defunct. Time exists only in terms of pages of book left to read or number of problems left to solve. Performance optimization occurs by judicious use of time alloted to sleeping, eating, and other necessary human activities for poring through the book. Dead Man Walking would be the description closest to being correct at these times. And yet, in this primarily black and white state of existence, there was a brief splash of colour, yesterday.

This was while eating dinner. Across the table from me were two other gentlemen who clearly did not have to worry about Mass Transfer and other such trivialities of life. So they launched into this animated discussion about a lesson they had in 9th Standard in their English textbook.

You remember that story called The Deer in The Forest, or something?

You mean Bambi?

No no, this was just, a deer in the forest. There would be this deer, with it's baby deer, what do you call it...

Fawn.

Yes, fawn. So there is this deer and the fawn living in a forest. One day there is a huge forest fire and there is mayhem all round. The deer and its fawn, in panic, run straight into a tiger. As the tiger watched hungrily, the fawn starts trembling, its legs refusing to move. The deer knows that there is no way its baby can outrun the tiger, so it steps in between the tiger and its baby...

In real life that'll never happen, the deer will just run away.

What? Why?

What, obviously it can outrun the tiger, and besides the tiger will be satisfied with the fawn. This way the deer can atleast survive and maybe give birth to another fawn. If it stays there, the tiger will kill it first, and then go after the fawn and kill it too anyway.

The man had a point, I thought.

Eh no, what're you saying? You know when a Cobra lays eggs, and a mongoose comes to eat the eggs, the cobra will go out and fight the mongoose and die, rather than let the mongoose take the eggs. If that's the case for unhatched eggs, surely a deer would do the same for a living, breathing fawn.

Yes, but the cobra and mongoose are at least well-matched. Between the deer and the tiger, it's a no contest, and hence, no point.

The man was making point after point.

No da, the deer will defend the kid only first. Ok, that's what the story says, let's stick to it. So the way that scene is described, it's one of the few lines etched in my memory.
"With a trembling heart, she stood in front of her baby, as she watched the jaws of death of the tiger, ready to tear into her flesh at any moment."

I smiled. I had finished my dinner. I was full.