Keep-sake or keep safe?

My tigress is finally finished! Shiny from her coating of melamine she sits rather regally on the floor of my studio, pleased to have me off her back and able to rest without being prodded and poked about! From a white albino fibre-baby, she has transformed into a bollywood shake-a-tail girl; bling pink and sequined to the hilt, she truly is a beautiful girl! Covered in chamak gulabi roses and adorned with painted oriental lilies that climb up her spine, each day she has infused a presence of her own in her temporary home that is my studio these days. As she tilts her nose rather disdainfully in the air, perhaps chastising me for "dressing" her in open view of all and sundry, I am beginning to have my heart strings tugged upon knowing that shortly she will be off on her jaunt to Delhi, via Mumbai.

I am not certain if she is a party-type girl! From her get-up one should assume so; but then her fiercely piercing eyes suggest otherwise!! She has two tails that nestle calmly curled at her feet, but in the watchful stance I sense that in an instance she will pounce and hold you pinned to your conscience; for her glittering skin is not to be eyed or coveted, but is to remind you instead that you alone can become the saviour of her extinction.

Pukkaar-billi-billi! Call out, and do not let a piercing silence engulf you from the greed of trafficking in tiger skins and relics. Pukkaar-billi-billi, and hear instead the deafening roar of these beautiful beasts command your fear and respect. Help them to propagate in their natural habitat, and build back their numbers through our vigilance and nurturing. How is it possible for this endangered animal to still be poached and slaughtered so openly in spaces where they are expecting to be protected? The trail of blood most certainly leads to positions of power and political connivance. Be cautioned, we may only have artists renditions of this amazing animal if we do not act with responsibility, and make it a personal mission to save the tiger.