Chapter 2 — Bringing Up Kari

Kari was five months old when he was given to the narrator to take care of. The narrator was nine years old at the time and could only reach Kari's back by standing on tiptoe.

Kari needed forty pounds (about sixteen kilograms) of twigs a day — not to eat in the usual sense, but to chew and play with.

Every morning the narrator took Kari to the river. Kari would lie on the sand bank while the narrator rubbed him with clean river sand for an hour. Then Kari would lie in the water for a long time. On coming out, his skin would shine like ebony and he would squeal with pleasure as the narrator rubbed water down his back.

The narrator had to climb all kinds of trees to find the most delicate and tender twigs. A very sharp hatchet was required, and it took half an hour to sharpen it properly, because if a twig was mutilated (torn awkwardly) an elephant would not touch it.

Kari called out to alert the narrator, who found Kari in the river with his trunk above water. Kari trumpeted and pushed the narrator into the stream near the drowning boy. When the narrator struggled in the current while holding the boy, Kari darted into the water, stretched out his trunk, and when the narrator's body rose above the water, Kari wrapped his trunk around the narrator's neck like a lasso and pulled them both to shore.

Kari stretched his trunk through the dining-room window and swept the bananas off the table. Because the trunk looked just like a black snake disappearing through the window, no one connected it to Kari; the servants and then the narrator were blamed before he was discovered with bananas strewn in his pavilion.

The narrator pulled Kari out by the ear, showed the parents that Kari was the thief, and scolded him, saying that next time he would be whipped. The source notes that 'An elephant is willing to be punished for having done wrong' — Kari's pride was so injured that he never stole from the dining-room again, and afterwards he would squeal as if to thank anyone who gave him fruit.

'Mali' is the command to walk: the keeper says 'Mali' while pulling the elephant's trunk forward. 'Dhat' is the command to sit: the keeper says 'Dhat' while pulling the elephant by the ear. Kari learned 'Mali' after three lessons but took three weeks to master 'Dhat'.

As an elephant grows taller — by two or three years old it can only be reached with a ladder — the keeper needs it to sit down so he or she can climb onto its back without carrying a ladder everywhere.

The master call is a strange hissing, howling sound — described as if a snake and a tiger were fighting — made close to the elephant's ear. It is the hardest signal to teach, taking about five years to learn properly. When given the master call, the elephant pulls down trees with its trunk, frightening away all jungle animals and clearing a straight road through the jungle back to the keeper's house.

The story is written by Dhan Gopal Mukerji and is adapted from his book Kari, the Elephant, as stated at the end of the chapter.

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