The day I sighted a giraffe in the backyard

(This is based on a true story and some parts are fictionalised. I leave it to you to decide which one is what.) 

I stood next to the window in the dining room adjacent to the clinic space and watched outside. Lucky, the white coloured stray dog which had adopted the clinic as its home was lying in the grass and sunbathing. Just beyond the fence three women were working on the field, planting watermelon seeds. Their slow rhythmic movements reaching into the vessel containing the seeds and sowing them on the ground was synchronised perfectly. It was like a gentle rhythmic dance. I was sipping on my coffee. It was not a particularly flavourful coffee. We buy 200 ml of milk from which the entire clinic staff (all six of us) have our break time coffee made from instant coffee powder. More than nourishment or flavour, the coffee served the purpose of a little break in the middle of a hectic clinic and so it just did not matter. As I stood watching the scenery from the window, a giraffe marched into sight. 

How would you respond if you saw a giraffe walking in the fields in rural Chengalpet district, or for that matter any rural area in India, other than a zoo? I know many people in my area did not even know what a giraffe is. But here it was in all its 15 feet glory, marching royally and gracefully towards the clinic. Its beautiful brown and off-white patterned skin reflected the bright sunlight and was shining like gold. The long neck was gracefully moving this way and that. The giraffe had a look of calmness on its face and the round beautiful eyes were rolling around in the eye sockets. The eye lashes were long and pretty. It was a complete picture of grace, serenity and beauty. Nobody seemed to notice it. The three women were going about their meditative process of seed-sowing. Lucky was licking his hind quarters and lazing around undisturbed. 

I quickly turned and looked at my colleagues who were standing in the dining room and none of them had noticed anything. I turned again and looked out of the window. There the giraffe was standing, just the other side of our clinic fence with its long neck peeping into our compound. I wiped my eyes, pinched myself to check if it was just a dream. No, it was reality. I turned and literally ran out of the dining space into the open backyard of the clinic. It was January afternoon, and the weather was chilly, but bright and sunny! It felt good to stand out in the sun. I looked up and there the giraffe was. The giraffe seemed confused and was restless. How did it get here? What should I do now? Should I call someone? Maybe the Panchayat leader? I pulled out the phone from my pocket and dialled Mr. Kalaiarasan, the president of the local panchayat. 

"Vanakkam Sir. This is Dr. Vijay from the clinic. Can I talk to you for a minute now?"

"Sure Doctor. How are you? How was Pongal? How is your family?"

"All fine sir. I called to tell you about a strange thing that has happened in the clinic today." 

"Sure, what is it? Anything I can do to help?"

"There is a giraffe in the compound adjacent to the clinic in the watermelon field." 

"Giraffee...? what is a giraffe? Are you saying there is a snake?" 

The Panchayat leader was a nice man, but he had just studied up to 2nd standard and then dropped out. He is a well meaning man, but cannot read or write to save his own life. He obviously did not know what a giraffe is. 

"No sir, giraffe is a forest animal. It is not present in India. It is an animal found in African forests. I don't know how it got to our village. But it is there. We have to inform someone." 

"That is interesting, I am coming immediately. I will see the animal and then we will talk. I will be there soon." 

I was not sure what I had to do next. Should I walk back to the dining hall, finish my insipid coffee and then resume seeing patients in the clinic? Is the giraffe situation something that required my immediate attention? Should I call someone else other than the Panchayat president? Maybe call the collector office? There may be more prompt action then. I decided that I had to resume clinic. If I did not do that, people will get agitated. I ran back to the dining room. The nurses and lab technician were just finishing up their coffee. 

"How come you are all so calm. Don't you see that giant creature standing in the water melon farm?"

They all rushed to the window and peeped out. All of them let out shrieks in unison. The lab technician the youngest of them all said, "I have only seen this in my English book. It is called giraffe no sir?" she squealed in excitement. "Does it bite? How does it attack? Should we be scared?" she was blurting out in excitement. All three of them turned to me. 

"I have informed Kalaiarasan sir. He said he will come."

I pointed to one of the nurses and said, "Can you stay back and show Kalaiarasan sir this giraffe when he comes? The rest of us must resume clinic. Patients are waiting." One of the nurses stayed back. We all walked backed to the clinic, all the while staring at the giraffe which was still confused and looking this way and that. 

As we entered the clinic a lot of agitated conversation was on in the waiting area. I walked up to check on what was going on. They were all talking about the tall animal standing in the next compound. A big crowd had gathered in the backyard of the clinic. Many people had their mobile phones in their hands clicking photos of the calm giant standing there. Some of them were on social media platforms live, describing their tryst with a strange animal. 

"They say this animal is found only in Africa. In India I believe it is present in the Mysore and Odisha zoo. Nowhere else you can find this animal in India" a young man who had just browsed his phone for information was giving a lecture to the gathered crowd. 

"Could this have escaped from our Vandalur zoo?" a woman asked. 

"Let us call the zoo authorities and find out if this one escaped from the zoo" another young man shouted out and got busy finding out the phone number of the zoo. 

As I stood there listening to these conversations, it seemed that nobody was interested in the clinic anymore. They were all excited to see this strange, tall creature and wanted to participate in this rare moment of drama that happened in their otherwise mundane life. Just as I was standing there the Panchayat president arrived in his Innova and his entourage of assistants. He walked straight up to me and greeted me with a vanakkam gesture. We both walked to the backyard. 

"Oh My God! This is beautiful. It looks like a camel, but much taller. I have never seen something like this before" Kalaiarasan said. 

By now the people had warned the three women who were working in the field and they had all joined this crowd on our side of the fence. 

"Doctor, what should we do now? Can you give treatment to the giraffe?" Mr. Kalaiarasan asked. 

"Sir, the giraffe does not need treatment. It needs something to eat and drink and we need to inform the forest department. And even if it needed treatment, we may have to call the vet. I treat human beings" 

"Doctor, if you are not too busy, why don't you call the forest officer yourself? I will speak if it is required." 

I went inside the clinic, found the phone number to the Chengalpet collector office and dialled the collector's number. 

"Hello...collector's office here. Who is this?"

"I am Dr. Vijay from a rural clinic in K village. I am calling to speak to the collector"

"You cannot talk to him now. Could you tell me what your problem is. I am the secretary to the collector"

"Madam, we have sighted a giraffe in our compound and want to inform the collector to take appropriate action"

The line went silent for some time. There was some static and then I heard voices in the background. 

"Sheela, giraffes means what? This person is saying some giraffe is there in his compound. Which department should I refer him to?" "Ask him to contact Forest. Giraffe is a wild animal." After this background conversation the lady came back to the phone. 

"Hello....yes your giraffe is not under the collector's direct portfolio. You have to talk to the forest department. Shall I connect you?" 

"Yes, please connect me to the forest department. thank you"

The line went dead within 30 seconds of this. I searched for the forest department's phone number I did not find it. I walked out to the backyard to check on what was happening. The villagers had gathered a lot of hay and grass that they had kept for their cows and had put it in front of the giraffe and it was calmly munching on the grass. Giraffe usually don't eat grass. They reach out and eat fresh leaves from tops of trees aided by their long neck. But this one must have been really hungry. They had put a large pail of water nearby and the giraffe drank some water. By now the local school had closed for lunch break and the delighted squealing children were running around thrilled and excited by the presence of this beautiful and calm giant. 

I kept trying to reach the forest department and after several hours of desperate wrong calls, call waiting, missed calls, and dropped calls, I reached a person who was a staff in the forest department. 

"Sir, I am calling to report the sighting of a wild giraffe in our field"

"Tell properly is it a wild boar, or cheetah or hyena?"

"It is none of them sir. It is a giraffe sir."

"No, we don't have giraffe."

"Sir, we have a giraffe."

"No, we don't have giraffe." 

"Oh my God! How many times can I tell you. It is a giraffe." I was starting to loose my calm. The man registered a complaint and gave me a complaint number. He said he will send the forest officers. With a mild sense of triumph I looked up and noticed that the time was 4.30 PM. The drama had been going on from 11 AM this morning. When I walked out to where the giraffe was, I noticed the crowd had grown big and there were now even people selling snacks and juices. Mr. Kalaiarasan had erected some long poles and tied thick ropes to regulate the crowd that came to visit the giraffe. There were three security guards whom Mr. Kalaiarasan had posted to take care of the giraffe. He was standing there frantically talking to someone on the phone. Even as I was watching all this some cars landed there and news reporters with their camera and microphones came running to capture the news of the strange giraffe in a local rural clinic. 

"All this is because of global warming and climate change. Because of climate change wild animals are being displaced from Africa. So they walked all the way to our village because we are a eco-friendly village." an elderly man was giving an interview to a television news reporter. 

"When atrocities in the world increase Vishnu comes in various avatars to save the planet. This is nothing but the Kalki avatar. Don't you see how it resembles a tall horse. This is divine Godly intervention" another old man was shouting into the mic of yet another news reporter. 

Soon the forest officers arrived and took charge. They cleared the space and arranged for the animal to be captured and taken to the Vandalur Zoo. They used horse tranquilliser to anaesthetise the animal and took her in a large container truck. (Yes, it was a she) We still do not know how the giraffe got there. We probably will never know. 

The next day clinic was as hectic as it has been of late. Nowadays a lot of complicated patients come to see me. The other day I saw a woman with spinocerebellar ataxia with very bad insulin resistance. I also saw a woman with a thalamic infarct leading to stroke and involuntary abnormal movements of the hands. Complicated diabetes which is resistant to treatment with maximum dose insulin, patients with brain tumours and blood cancers are all coming to the clinic. For most of them I am the primary care provider who can coordinate care that they receive from multiple specialists. Every clinic day has become the day when I sight a giraffe in the backyard!