A Chinese jungle story (true story )
It was a cold dreary dawn when the women ventured into the nearby jungle from her village .
Life wasnt easy in those days .
China was still to bloom into the modern state of steel and shine at that time .
Communism ruled the country and the people lived with wants specially those in the far flung villages .Even lighting a stove for cooking or to ward off the freezing winter months meant drudging the hard frozen grounds for long and going into the shrubs and the jungle to get some firewood mostly wet to collect them and return back dry them and use them hardly the ease with which modern Chinese women flicked thier stoves or heaters with a switch .
Wild pigs bears foxes and even the feaerd tigers were supposed to inhabit the deeper reaches of the jungle and the winter often made them stray to the edges and prey on these lonely women .
So the woman was weary and gaurded as the morning fog covered the jungle in its miasma.
The catcalls of the birds and the occasional monkey cry and other sounds of a jungle dawn made her ignore a different cry initially but then she knew it was a baby crying from inside the bushes.
She was transfixed and frightened
She walked ahead into the bushes and cleared the branches of a low lying tree.
She was amazed to see a baby cuddled in old clothes crying helplessly on the ground .
The mother in her made her rush to take the child and hug it to her chest
The whimpers of child was feeble from the cold
It shouldnt have been long for no infant could survive in a jungle crying
It was an open invitation for hungry predators .
The woman quickly moved to her house bundled up the infant in some warm blankets and fed her some warm milk using a spoon by now she knew it was a girl child .
The woman already had three children and was sure her husband wouldnt accept another mouth to feed .
She had to think quickly about what to do with the child .
Her brother was unmarried but had always wanted a child.
She called him and told him about her find he said he would take care of the child with some help .
As soon as her husband returned she too told him of the baby .
He was worried of the consequences but agreed for the brother to try out to take care of the child but in a day they knew the brother could hardly cope with the infant and the woman started managing in her house .
The womans son had told this news of a new baby sister in his house to his friend whose mother too was known to the woman well .
The neighbours too were talking of a child found in the jungle and started coming to the womans house to have a look .
The neighbouring womans son went on askkng his mother about taking up the child as he would love to have a baby sister .
So after a long process of legal measures the baby was adopted by the neighbour family and grew up in thier house .
The woman too watched her grow up sloelt join school which she did quite well.
The adopted parents never told her anything and loved her as much as thier son but when it came to putting her in college which she wanted so much they confessed to her they could not afford it as they had to educate the son as those days in China educating a girl was a secomd choice in rural areas .
So the girl was planned for being married off and suitable alliances were seeken.
One of the alliances was a man slightly older than her but with a good job and since the girl liked him was married to him.
It was on that day of her marriage that her tearful parents broke her the news she was adopted ftom someone who found her in a jungle and no knew who her real parents were.
Though this was a shock she now understood all the hidden smiles of the villagers when they saw her .
She had no anger against anyone and loved her parents only more for looking after her but she did feel sad that she was abandoned by parents who left her to a sure death in a jungle though destiny decided her to live .
It gave her a quiet determination to study and work and maybe one day to meet them somewhere
She was ready to forgive them all she wanted was thier love .
She studied english and a course in tourism to train as a guide
By then her husband and she with thier baby boy had moved from the village to shiny Shanghai in a China which was transformed and booming with tourists .
There was big demand for english speaking guides and our girl almost landed a job on one condition she had to be less plumpy for she was a bit so .
She lost 15 kg in two months and landed the job
So said lily our guide in Shangai while her eyes flooded with tears .
It was a cold dreary dawn when the women ventured into the nearby jungle from her village .
Life wasnt easy in those days .
China was still to bloom into the modern state of steel and shine at that time .
Communism ruled the country and the people lived with wants specially those in the far flung villages .Even lighting a stove for cooking or to ward off the freezing winter months meant drudging the hard frozen grounds for long and going into the shrubs and the jungle to get some firewood mostly wet to collect them and return back dry them and use them hardly the ease with which modern Chinese women flicked thier stoves or heaters with a switch .
Wild pigs bears foxes and even the feaerd tigers were supposed to inhabit the deeper reaches of the jungle and the winter often made them stray to the edges and prey on these lonely women .
So the woman was weary and gaurded as the morning fog covered the jungle in its miasma.
The catcalls of the birds and the occasional monkey cry and other sounds of a jungle dawn made her ignore a different cry initially but then she knew it was a baby crying from inside the bushes.
She was transfixed and frightened
She walked ahead into the bushes and cleared the branches of a low lying tree.
She was amazed to see a baby cuddled in old clothes crying helplessly on the ground .
The mother in her made her rush to take the child and hug it to her chest
The whimpers of child was feeble from the cold
It shouldnt have been long for no infant could survive in a jungle crying
It was an open invitation for hungry predators .
The woman quickly moved to her house bundled up the infant in some warm blankets and fed her some warm milk using a spoon by now she knew it was a girl child .
The woman already had three children and was sure her husband wouldnt accept another mouth to feed .
She had to think quickly about what to do with the child .
Her brother was unmarried but had always wanted a child.
She called him and told him about her find he said he would take care of the child with some help .
As soon as her husband returned she too told him of the baby .
He was worried of the consequences but agreed for the brother to try out to take care of the child but in a day they knew the brother could hardly cope with the infant and the woman started managing in her house .
The womans son had told this news of a new baby sister in his house to his friend whose mother too was known to the woman well .
The neighbours too were talking of a child found in the jungle and started coming to the womans house to have a look .
The neighbouring womans son went on askkng his mother about taking up the child as he would love to have a baby sister .
So after a long process of legal measures the baby was adopted by the neighbour family and grew up in thier house .
The woman too watched her grow up sloelt join school which she did quite well.
The adopted parents never told her anything and loved her as much as thier son but when it came to putting her in college which she wanted so much they confessed to her they could not afford it as they had to educate the son as those days in China educating a girl was a secomd choice in rural areas .
So the girl was planned for being married off and suitable alliances were seeken.
One of the alliances was a man slightly older than her but with a good job and since the girl liked him was married to him.
It was on that day of her marriage that her tearful parents broke her the news she was adopted ftom someone who found her in a jungle and no knew who her real parents were.
Though this was a shock she now understood all the hidden smiles of the villagers when they saw her .
She had no anger against anyone and loved her parents only more for looking after her but she did feel sad that she was abandoned by parents who left her to a sure death in a jungle though destiny decided her to live .
It gave her a quiet determination to study and work and maybe one day to meet them somewhere
She was ready to forgive them all she wanted was thier love .
She studied english and a course in tourism to train as a guide
By then her husband and she with thier baby boy had moved from the village to shiny Shanghai in a China which was transformed and booming with tourists .
There was big demand for english speaking guides and our girl almost landed a job on one condition she had to be less plumpy for she was a bit so .
She lost 15 kg in two months and landed the job
So said lily our guide in Shangai while her eyes flooded with tears .
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