The Lion & The Hamster

The Lion and The Hamster – a modern day fairy tale, told through a set of eight instrumental pieces.
Each piece has a tale woven around it alongside a hand drawn illustration. It is an attempt to correlate image-music-text as a medium for storytelling. In spite of being complete in itself, all the eight tales are linked to form one fable, independent of space-time continuum. Perhaps a figment of imagination curated inside a restless mind, attempting to escape a reality, too difficult to accept or believe in.

The first memory was of a January evening inside a tropical jungle café. It was the regular hangout of the Lion and his friends. Every evening, he would play a broken old guitar, which belonged to the café for centuries. Together with his friend, a happy Hippopotamus on percussion, he would roar out jungle songs from around the world. It was one of those wet, winter evenings when the café’s warmth was refuge to many animals from the jungle, a Fox and a Hamster entered the café. They looked like they had come from the distant woods of a faraway land. Sitting a little farther from the Lion’s den, they seemed to have taken interest in the music. As the Lion finished playing, one of them came up to him and said, “Hello I am Hamster. My friend Mr Fox and I are musicians too. Would you mind if he plays a song? ” The Lion hesitated. The jungle was his territory. However, out of courtesy, he nodded and passed on the guitar to the Fox, who picked up the broken old instrument and played a mystic nomadic melody. The beauty of the piece had taken the Lion and his friends by surprise. Before he could ask the whereabouts of the two, the Hamster strummed the guitar and sang a song. As you all might have understood by now, the song was beautiful too, and the voice, gentle, deep and warm, rekindled every little sense of romance within the Lion’s heart. There was something strange in the affect with which she sang. It was difficult to figure out where the Hamster came from, irrespective of her impeccable articulation in the way she spoke or sang. Her warm expressions and gaze were not so distant after all.

Pondering over this beautiful memory was not a wise idea the Lion thought. He looked at an empty blue wall in his room and sipped on the herbal potion. Meditation had taught him to observe and be aware of memories. It taught him, not to rest on a single memory for too long. Especially, if it was too beautiful to forget. He thought, this next one was funny, when he remembered the contorted face of Gean the Crow. She had screamed out to little Lemur “Do not turn the lights on Lim! It’s my nest and electricity costs!!” The whole family had taken refuge at Gean the Crow’s for a month or two! The Hamster was homeless. Gean the Crow was an old friend of hers. The Lemur was her smallest child. And while they thought Gean’s offer to let them stay in her expensive nest would be purely out of the goodness of her heart, reality painted a different picture. The story started, as the second child of the Hamster, a white Chimpanzee with blue eyes had been gruesomely attacked by a bunch of Gorillas in the dark forest. The white Chimp was the apple of the Hamster’s eye. A very loving monkey, the Chimp was deluded by the thought that he was a wild black Gorilla and was consumed by the will to prove his prowess and identity. How could the Hamster stay away from her own beloved Chimp? A mother after all. She would not permit the Chimp to stay any further in the Gorilla invaded jungle. And there they were, bestowing their faith and trust on a selfish Crow obsessed by money, social status, dresses, jewelry, painfully consumed by her pride. She had secretly asked for four hundred twigs a month as rent from the Hamster and made her do all the washing & cleaning inside her shining nest. They would sleep on the cold floor with the heating tactfully shut down at night. The Lion was heartbroken at the sight when he had first arrived in the cold woods of Stroud in the middle of March to see her beloved Ham and her two little ones in such agony. The Chimp would revolt every night asking his mother to let him go. But where would she let him go? Amidst all the grimness and anxieties, the only wonderful occasion to cheer them up was the upcoming birthday of the Hamster. The Lion thought, it would be the best opportunity to bring the whole family together. The Hamster had unconditionally loved him. It was high time she was made to feel how special she was. The ones invited to the party were Mama Cuddles the Loopy, an eccentric funny Hen who also happened to be the Hamster’s mother along with Beaver the Free, Ham’s beloved oldest son. As they all got busy planning surprises, the most unexpected response came from the Chimp who said proudly “I’ll make the Fatoush Salad for mumma”. “What a family!” the Lion thought. The world’s quirkiest gathering, wasn’t it? A Hamster, a Lion, a Beaver, a Chimpanzee and a Lemur! Amidst all the plans and excitement, the only creature who looked unhappy was Gean. The Crow sat on the top of the nest making envious remarks and began to exercise authority in every way possible. The day finally arrived. Everything was going according to the plan. The Hamster was moved to tears, to find out the beautiful Beaver as the final surprise in her birthday treasure hunt. By the time it was sundown the controlling nature of the dazzling Crow had turned rather funny for the inhabitants enabling the white Chimp to discover angry gestures in the air as soon as she would leave the kitchen. Mama Cuddle would tactfully avoid the situation saying that she needed a glass of water and then pecked away to glory. Finally when the cake arrived, the Lemur lit up a few lamps in excitement for his mother to be able to look at the beautiful handmade cake. And just when the wishes were being made and the cake was heading for a blissful destiny, they all heard a sharp loud voice. “Electricity costs in my nest”, as if they were all in a primary school. What followed were the pecky movements of a Hen followed by a weird rotation of her eye balls as if she was about to have a dyslexic fit, unique funny gestures and newly invented signs from the Chimp that should be included in the book of abusive semiotics, and everyone shouting out together completely ignoring the Crow, “Happy Birthday”.

It was a bright clear morning. After months and years of sailing, through the tidal waves and islands of enchanted spells, the warmth of the sea breeze and a blue sky above was more than joyous. They had mastered hunger, nausea and a never-ending whiff of salt. They were used to storms, giant waves, and sea monsters. Nothing surprised them anymore. Infact a beautiful clear breezy day was so unexpected, that they found it hard to get up. Curled up against each other they had gone off to sleep on the deck itself. A few days back they had been glorious in reviving the stone from the enchanted islands. Now all they had to do was to take it to Aslan. He would surely help them break the enchantments of the stone. The Hamster slept under a blanket. The Lion got up and looked around. He saw the messages sent by the Lemur in the little magical box. It was a port key, a device used for magical communication. He was secretly in touch with the Lemur and the Chimp through the box, all the while. Before he could go through the messages, his attention was caught by a dazzling golden light that came from the east. He first thought it was the sun, having not seen it for days. But he soon realized, it was coming from a far away island. Glowing in the golden sunlight, was Aslan’s Country! They had made it! He rushed to the edge of the deck to have a closer look. It was an extraordinary sight. Green meadows and hills, stretch of palms and a golden tower shining in the centre. Cair Paravel!! He shouted “Ham! Get up! We have made it!” He had to wake her up to congratulate her. “Haaaaam!!! We did it!” He went jumping & whistling to the sleeping Hamster and shook the blanket in excitement. What he saw made him loose his balance for a moment. It was a little rag doll inside. The Hamster was gone. There was a letter tied carefully to the doll’s hair. It read “Dear Leon. I have seen you struggle all these months & years trying to make my life perfect. I have seen you fall miserably ill. I can’t let you do all that any more.

I know you will find it hard to believe that I have left so abruptly. My true priorities lie with my little Lemur and I can’t have you responsible for us any more. My father had left me and my mother before I was born. I can’t leave my children. We are deeply grateful for what you have done for us by bringing us together. But it is my family and I will be taking care of it until things stabilize. If destiny permits, one day you and I shall be together. Lots of Love. Your Ham”.

Oh Ham, honorable, it sounds indeed. Like in fables and fairy tales. Where years of suffering can pass with a swift turn of a page. But in reality? Or was it a fairy tale too?

It was a gloomy monsoon night in Calcutta. A young man was lying on the street corner. The place stunk of piss and cheap liquor. A little further away was a jasmine seller trying to sell a bunch of garlands to a young couple, heading home in a cycle rickshaw. A rag picker was walking down the alley with a big sack of rags on his back.

The young man looked down at his walking shoes, lit a cigarette and smiled. He adjusted his mane like hair, whistled a black American ghetto tune he had learnt from his Anglo-Indian friends, and moved on.

I am deeply thankful to all my dear friends and the wonderful musicians, sound engineers and technicians who have helped me tell this tale. The images were hand drawn by Avirup Basu, a friend and an extraordinary artist, to whom I am eternally grateful for bringing my imagination into reality. I would like to earnestly thank Neel Dutt for his unconditional help in editing the text of the entire story. My thanking list also includes Arinjoy Sarkar (Tatum) and Koustav Dey (Tapuli) for being there, morally and musically during the entire time of the album’s making and Mr Amyt Datta for being a musical guide to me and many other musicians in my city. Finally, I would like to show my heartiest gratitude to Grinning Tree for all the care they have taken in designing the CD.