The People in Zoo (Collated)

I had earlier written this series. Lately, I realised that I could do a better job at it. I have rewritten the stories and collated them since I felt that they make more sense this way. Let me know what you all think.

The Tiger

“Of course, it is better than the circus I was at earlier. The minions feed me well and scrub me often too. My 100×100 feet home comes fitted with grass to lay on and trees to scratch my back. But I miss the drinking straight from the stream, the rush of excitement I used to feel on running after my prey, and most of all, running around the forest with mom.

Don’t know when I will see them again.”

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The Flamingo

“That cramped cage and now this!

Do they really think I’m better off in this aviary I have to share with these minions? How I hate the Gobble-Gobble and the Cackle-Cackle—the constant cacophony of the mindless birds who have never seen the world!

I can see the sky from here. The way the Sun and clouds call to me and the wind lifts me up only to crash me in the damned fence—never before had I thought that hell was real.”

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­­­The Lion

The Lion growled at the flash of the camera.

“How I hate them when they pry in like that. Is there no privacy here? What’s the point of giving me a mate when I can’t even nuzzle her without hearing a camera click somewhere?

Well, if I can’t be alone with her, why even bother? Let them think I’m not interested.”

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The Stag

“I see her sad eyes filled with longing across the wired high fence. I feel the same longing deep within; a loneliness I never thought could exist. A bondage that I never realized cuts through me in every waking moment and dreams too.

Of course, I have a herd. They have given me five mates.

But in this moment, I feel I never had a choice.”

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The Alligator

“Where have all the eggs gone again? I had buried them in the sand under the tree. Did the birds find them again? But I never saw them descend…

I’ve scoured every inch of land within the enclosure. Did someone steal them and took them away?

But no one came…Well, except the cleaner…But he wouldn’t do that to me, would he? He must know how much my babies mean to me.

Maybe they hatched when I was eating and are hiding in the water already. But where are the shells then?”

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The Hippopotamus

“They have sent me a new ‘wife’! Do they really think she can distract me?

They took away my real wife four months back when she was several months along. I let them because the guy who treated my leg was with them too. Ever since then, I’ve waited for her to return with the baby. But now I hear her and the baby in a distance from another enclosure. I called her and she called me right back.

I tried to break the walls to reach her, but they were too strong.

Now, they have sent me a new ‘wife’! As if I care! Damn these walls!”