LIFE LESSONS FROM GENTLE GIANTS

Sangita Iyer is a broadcast journalist, writer, biologist, wildlife filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer.

The founding executive director of the Voice for Asian Elephants Society is also a Grant’s Desi Achiever.

Her multiple award-winning documentary Gods in Shackles was featured at the International Film Festival of India and nominated at the UN General Assembly.

In her book with the same name, she takes readers behind the scenes and on her own journey of self discovery.

It reads like the books that are sometimes released with blockbusters, to give people an intimate look at the making of the film, all the drama and details that a movie can’t encompass.

But this book is more than what sparked the idea for the documentary, the struggle to raise funds, sign up a talented and committed team, and the dangers inherent in taking on a powerful lobby or of the bonds she forged with her beloved elephants. It is a portrayal of how a woman’s passion to save elephants led her to explore deeper truths within herself, to face things she had buried under layers of conditioning and what is expected of “good girls”.

Perhaps this was the universe’s way of breaking down my tough outer shell and helping me realize we are all truly connected.

There are gut-wrenching details of how elephants are tortured in the name of religion and culture, the physical and psychological trauma they endure when they are ripped away from their families.

Thechikkottu Kaavu Ramachandran is blind in his right eye. His body was covered in scars and his ankles draped in albino rings. These were remnants from previous wounds inflicted by the shackles that had dug into his skin.

She also shares her story, of the disconnect that festered in her personal relationships.

Bedridden after a devastating accident and unable to bear the weight of the cast on her leg and the titanium plates on her ankle, her thoughts turned inexorably to the shackled elephants, to how her current condition paralleled theirs.

Suddenly, I had a eureka moment. It dawned on me that I, too, was shackled, paralyzed, and crippled by fear-based thoughts that my mind had created... I had become paralyzed by self-doubt inflicted from my past conditioning and shackled by the thoughts and beliefs of others that had been imposed on me when I was a young girl.

Were there lessons here, she wondered, as she lay helpless in bed, as her fractured relationship with her brother mended slowly.

We had unshackled past resentments and misunderstandings and healed on a deep level. All our preconceived judgements, resentment, hurt, and sorrows had melted away, and we were the best of friends once again.

Reliving the trauma of sexual abuse she suffered as a child, she contemplated on what the elephants were teaching her, to love and accept people who acted in unloving ways.

In a sweet story that reveals the depth of Iyer’s connect with elephants, her grandmother tells her that as a four-year-old, she had questioned why the elephants’ front legs were shackled together while she was free to run.

There are proofing/editing errors:

...knocking on humanity’s doorsteps.

I painstakingly sat up.

With a worrisome look, he told me...

In a long sentence, the ruler of a state is described as the brainchild of a temple festival, instead of the other way around.

But it is easy to overlook these in a book with a foreword by none other than Dr Jane Goodall. In his introduction, Richard Louv, author of Our Wild Calling and Last Child in the Woods writes of how Iyer “describes her own struggle with loss and loneliness, a story to which many readers will personally relate”.

Gods in Shackles is disturbing, it is moving and it is a must-read for those interested in learning what elephants can teach us about empathy, resilience and freedom.

Sangita Iyer’s series, Asian Elephants 101, aired on multiple Nat Geo channels.

A ROOM WITH A POINT OF VIEW

LIFE LESSONS FROM GENTLE GIANTS