the story of tigress

She was the first female to rule the jungle. Before her, female leaders were unheard of. She took the jungle by storm, with her remarkable intelligence and fierce determination. Tigress knew almost everything including the most useless trivia. She spoke the languages of other animals fluently and one of her habits was to insist that every animal in her kingdom spoke correctly. It is, according to her, a sign of strength and intelligence. She frowned upon grammatical errors and was forever correcting mistakes of others, regardless of the situation, which more than often led to embarrassing situations.

Her children knew this only too well. They all had their share of awkward situations whereby their friends, on visits to the tigress residence, had been stopped mid-sentence to be corrected gramatically. This usually led to silent moments, faces turned bright red, followed by murmuring of awkward thank yous, eyes averted and after tinkering with the glass or emitting unnecessary coughs, their friends usually got up and left. They rarely returned.

This left the children exasperated. They begged their mother to act normal, but Tigress told them off. You should only be ashamed of your ignorance, never of your knowledge. And it is the duty of the more gifted minds to teach and correct the weaker ones. Her children secretly disagreed. For them those with more gifted minds should use their minds to think of better ways to impart knowledge, ways that did not involved belittling others. But they never voiced out their disagreement. Tigress had strong views on genetic segregation. She believed some species were simply born with better genes, therefore they were equipped to rule the world. She did not believe talent and hardwork alone were enough for anyone to excell. Tigress believed that her children were born better than others and they should forever made that clear to everyone. Do not let others tell you what to do, Tigress always said. You were born special and you would rule the world. You were different than the mediocres out there.

Strangely none of her children felt special. True, they did not fit in. Others either respected or feared them. When they were little they used to express their discomfort of the situation but Tigress had been far from understanding. Original minds never fit in. Another Tigress philosophy.

The truth is, her children were tired of having to act special when deep down they knew they were no different than other animals. They had their strengths and weaknesses just like every other creature in the planet. They simply wanted to belong.

And Tigress, despite her brilliant mind, had failed to understand this simple need. She was too busy shaping her children to be distinct animals. She taught them languages, science, maths, astronomy and religion. But she had failed to teach them how to embrace life.

There had been no wind the day Tigress died. Every animal in her kingdom came in tears. They feared the future without their powerful leader. No one could match her. She was simply too extraordinary.

They all wept and praised her greatness.

All except her own children who left the jungle and never looked back.