The Land of Kings and Tigers

Endowed with claws and vice-like jaws

A veritable killing machine;

You camouflage your inner self

With vibrant colors fitting of a queen

You roam the land of Rajasthan

No gladiator shall defeat;

The peoples that surround your home

Know the sacred secret that you keep

“Yes, I am the one who in your dream

Snatched life’s love from under weary feet

Three years its taken me to lure you here

So face- to- face we finally meet

“Accept the end I brought to life

With peace and dignity;

The striking pattern of my coat

Embodies enlightening colors of Holi

“The circle now sealed complete

Contentment in your heart;

Travel onward knowing in your troubled dream

I, the Royal Bengal, did not tear us apart”.

THE LAND OF KINGS AND TIGERS – SYNOPSIS

My trip to India was motivated by a need to return to the place my husband and I began our adventurous travels in 1980. This magnetism came with a dream I had after he passed away that I could not explain. In the dream, a Royal Bengal tiger confronted him as he was lying in bed recovering from his cancer treatments. With the tiger on one side of him and me on the other, I whispered to him to close his eyes, feign death, and I would protect him. The dream was very puzzling and somewhat disturbing! As a physician wife, I was guilt-ridden having not been able to rescue him from the cancer that I had likened to a stalking tiger in a poem I wrote titled “Pancreatic Pathos”.

So I set off for India in hopes of gaining insight. Fortunately, I was able to experience a tiger sighting and unbeknown to me, it happened to be during the Hindu festival of Holi.

It was here the well-intentioned words of friends and family “He will always be with you” became more than just a platitude. I now realized that in order to “protect him”, to keep his memory alive, I had to truly believe he was within my heart forever. My revelation was that the predatory “evil” I had given the tiger was actually counterbalanced by the enduring love embodied in the tiger’s vibrant colors and in the sacred meaning celebrated during this important Hindu festival. Peace at last! Namaste!