He was sickening. This teenage guy at the zoo. A boor, more in need of being caged than any other animal behind the bars. Anti-social. He clapped, whistled and cat called near every enclosure. He carried a sharp twig in his hands with which he poked the animals that stood or sat beside the grill. He yanked a feather out of a painted stork that strutted close. As I said, he was a misfit on the loose. He made the zoo experience a very painful one for me and the many others there. The families and children who scampered in their Sunday best, just stayed off him a safe distance. Teachers with rows of tiny kids in tow took other routes avoiding this fellow. It hurt me to see the animals suffer, and hurt me to see the children being denied their education.

How come no staff or duty guard is around? 
I tried to talk to him politely, but he laughed me off. I’ve got a ticket he says, just like you. So buzz off, he says, throwing a small stone at the lonesome silver-backed male gorilla. Ho, ho, ha! Ha!, he laughs seeing the amazed look on the ape’s face. When another stone lands on his rump, the animal scoots off making weird shrill agonized screams.

That is the Indian Rhino, I tell the little boy standing next to me, straining to look over the wall – his chin scrapes the rough edge of the cemented wall ringing the enclosure housing the grand pachyderm. I lift him up and show him: See he hs only one horn, no, not on his head, but on his nose. The African Rhino has two, both one behind the other. The boys eyes open wide, he is enthralled by the size and structure of the beast who was as near a specimen as was the dinosaur. We both watched as the rhino, contentedly, stuffed its mouth with grass, a pile of which had been deposited into his yard.

Suddenly, the peace is shattered. On the other side of the perimeter, is our man, the boor. Ha,ha, he guffaws, chewing gum, Hey, shoo, he yells at the rhino to draw its attention. It ignores him, it is thick-skinned, the rhino. Even the shower of pebbles aimed at all parts of the rhino, are shrugged off. The rhino couldn’t care less. By now a sizable crowd had gathered all round the moat wall. In a way, the public was happy that despite this idiot’s best efforts, the rhino just didn't react.
It looked at him condescendingly, with disdain.

The animal’s attitude riled this teenager in jeans. He leaned over as far as he could over the wall and shoved the pointed end of a stout stick onto the flank of the beast. Not satisfied with the minimal reaction, he stood on the wall, and threw a brick sized stone which landed with a thud just below its left ear.

I wished the animal moved away. This exhibition of wanton cruelty was churning my stomach. Then, thank God, the rhino turned around, facing us: it stood still as another rock was pelted at its rump with a sickening smack. The Great Indian One Horned Rhinocerus, an endangered species, India’s pride and heritage, one among the last few thousands left in this world – what a tragedy. What a pity. The rhino looked with its beady eyes at the little boy sitting astride my shoulders, legs dangling down my chest. I wondered how or what the response of the animal would have been in the wild.

Known for their rabid temper and locomotive like ferocious charges, they can rip apart a human being – brute strength: now emasculated and caged, he wasn’t on level playing field. He was not in his elements, but ours. At man’s mercy, for man’s amusement. Then it happened. I knew it would. I had studied wildlife all my life. The adrenaline rush. The fight or flight reflex that dictates our response. The sympathetic autonomic systems fire, adrenaline surges. Priming the smooth muscles and triggering sphincters. I also knew that the rhino has a peculiar habit, like many others in the wildlife kingdom. The rhino then let lout a liter of foul smelling urine in a jet that squarely rinsed and showered the insolent teenage tormentor. The urine stream is always, directed backwards in rhinos. In ten seconds flat, the guy was dripping head to toe bathed in rhino juice.

The entire circle of spectators applauded as if on cue, and laughed. I saw the legs and knees of the little perched on me quiver with delight. A trigger happy visitor, who had a ringside view of the events, recorded it posterity by clicking half a dozen snapshots.

Enough to add that all went home that day, happy. That is all, but one.

As for the rhino, I later heard, the whole day, he trotted and tossed his head, reliving the events, laughing his head off.