Protylopus was a placid Bactrian camel. She had long eyelashes, large dark eyes, a protruding eye ridge bone, gorgeous thick eyebrows and even a third eyelid to protect her eyes from the sand. Her two beautiful humps were 30 inches high and was covered with the softest looking beige fur. She was a true beauty.
If we had put a matrimonial ad for her in the paper or a profile description on a dating website, the line of suitors would stretch from one end of the Gobi Desert to the other. She belonged to a Sheikh who liked to be comfortably wedged between her two humps. He never noticed her beauty and being the gentle creature she was, she didn’t mind.
The Sheikh was a kind and loving master with just one weakness. No, it wasn’t belly dancers, it was chocolate. He had to have one after every meal and sometimes he would gobble them up between meals too. The camel was used to the sound of a chocolate wrapper being torn and the strange chocolate-melting-in-mouth mmmmmsss that would emit from the Sheikh every three hours.
Protylopus had a good life. All she had to do was walk when the Sheikh sat on her. She didn’t mind taking a stroll in the desert for her flat, leathery footpads and wide two-toed feet helped her walk through rocky terrain and shifting desert sands without sinking. At the end of each day, her grass and five gallons of water would be provided by one of the Sheikh’s minions. What more could a camel want? Very often, as the sun set, you could hear Protylopus grumpling, bellowing and grunting happily.
The Sheikh was very worried. The world’s supply of cocoa beans had run out and he had only two chocolates left. It had happened suddenly. One day, the world was gorging on chocolate and the next day there were none to be found. Conspiracy theories buzzed in the air, ‘The aliens have stolen all of earth’s chocolates, the CIA is making nuclear weapons with cocoa beans, the fundamentalists have hidden it in a safe city, etc.’. Nobody knew the truth and the Sheikh along with millions of chocolate addicts was facing acute withdrawal symptoms.
Now, unknown to even Protylopus, her humps were filled with chocolate. Blame it on her pregnant mother who ate only cocoa beans during her pregnancy. Every day, the Sheikh would sit between the chocolate humps and travel miles and miles looking for chocolate. If only he knew.
The Sheikh couldn’t take a world without his favourite food and decided to end it all. He got on Protylopus and asked her to march to the middle of the desert. Once there, he got off and waved goodbye to his camel and the only chocolate in the world. Protylopus didn’t feel sad at all. She just liked following instructions. Her master had told her to go home and that’s what she would do.
Calmly chewing some regurgitated grass she started walking back leaving behind a weeping Sheikh. It took four weeks to reach home. In that time, the only chocolate in the world began converting itself into fat to keep Protylopus alive. By the time she reached her shed sans Sheikh, her humps were small and shrivelled, devoid of any chocolate.
Moral: What you miss is not yours to know.
Protylopus is drawn by the fabulous Bijoy Venugopal. You can find more of his wonderful stuff here bijoyvenugopal.com
NothingBeastlyAboutIt 