The Rabbit

We were almost near the VHF Radar ground where we used to play cricket on Saturdays. Gopal just stepped his foot on something and a cry came out. He suddenly took back the foot. He told something is there in the dry grass. I found a baby rabbit of the color same as dried grass, hiding with fear inside the grassy field. We took it into my quarters. Sukanta and Gopal also came there. Gopal took it into his quarter to show his wife and we heard a loud cry of his wife! He brought some milk and tomato also to feed the rabbit.

This little rabbit brought my childhood memories back when we, me and my younger brother, had a pair of rabbits. They stayed in our own home for a few days and later we put them in an old cage behind my home which was made for sheeps grown in my ancestral home several years before. We were very happy those days. Each day we hurried from school to spend time with our rabbits. They were white in color. They were so cute and we loved them. On a fateful night, some dogs attacked the cage and took one rabbit away. We got the lonely second one and took inside our home. We cried a lot that day and were very sad and silent for many days that followed. One day Uppa gave that lonely rabbit to someone else. This was the tragic end of my first acquaintance with rabbits.

This rabbit spent the whole night in my quarters. I was not courageous enough to leave it back in that late night, because the field was very wild with lots of snakes, dogs, mongoose and so on. I cut some grass, leaves and put it in one room with all these edible items. But it was so scared that it did not eat anything from that the whole night; except finding shelter under those leaves. In the very early morning, I left it into the fields. I saw the joy of feeling freedom and safety in that creature when it dashed into the hidings of the grey grassy fields!