Elephant Tale

Part 2 of my India travel diary

We need to talk about elephants, of course. For the sake of context, I’ve always liked elephants, but I never thought of myself as being particularly elephant-centric, as some folks are. My grandfather, for instance, was an elephant man, and he had dozens of elephant figurines around the house that he had collected on his travels. To be clear, I’m not saying I didn’t like elephants; they just weren’t central to my identity, the way, say, horses and dogs were.

But a few years ago, the worm turned and I realized how fabulous elephants are, how marvelous and strange their appearance is, and how much I admire their social lives—the mom-focussed hierarchy, how they all trumpet in excitement when a baby is born, how they can send messages to each other through the ground, which they “hear” through their feet. How can you not love that?