Animal Attacks.

"What are your thoughts on animal attacks?" I asked one day at work. I didn't raise my head so I didn't know who all heard me. "What?", Rohit asked.

"What?", I repeated unconsciously.

"Are you asking this because of the headlines today?", Pranathi asked without looking away from her screen.

"Yeah..", I replied. "So what do you think?"

"I don't know much. Just that - paavam - she was badly injured and died even. She was 8 years old it seems no?", Pranathi expressed.

"Yeah.. so she went missing and they found her body a day later in the forest. I'm assuming she was dragged into the forest by that animal and then.. Ugh, poor girl. Such sad news early in the morning." I continued to talk as I kept typing the day's work schedule to my boss. Pranathi was still engrossed in her screen.

"What animal was it though?" Pranathi asked finally looking away from the screen and I looked back at her.

"What do you mean by "what animal"?", Mona asked suddenly. I didn't know she was listening until now.

"What is worse than human beings, no?" she continued.

"Umm... I'm not following..." I began.

"She was dragged into the forest and the police suspect they were 6 men. Six! Do you get it? Such a young girl, Akka. I've been so upset at the news since morning, you know? All the way, from home to the office - I only thought about it. It hurt me so much!" She exclaimed. She was looking into her screen and setting up her desk for the day's work while she caught her breath.

Rohit looked up concerned.

"It was a leopard that I'm talking about. A leopard mauled an 8-year-old in the Kashmir region and she died. Are you okay, Mona?" I asked worriedly.

"Oh..." she paused and we all exchanged looks. She looked between all three of us and going back to her screen she said, "Sorry, I thought you were talking about a different kind of animal attack."