Shreya's Safari of Small Wonders
A personalised storybook starring Shreya, age 10
On an ordinary morning with no special reason at all, Shreya joins a safari drive through golden grasslands, meeting a string of unforgettable animals — a preening ostrich, a napping lion pride, a matriarch elephant who answers to her name, and a shy chameleon — each teaching her something new about patience, noise, and paying attention. Along the way she discovers her sharp-eyed young guide is not the grown-up expert she assumed, a small surprise that reminds her wonder doesn't wait for anyone to grow up first.
No birthday, no holiday, just a Saturday with dust on Shreya's shoes and the whole day open like a gift. The safari jeep rattled over the dirt road, past thorny bushes and grass the color of toast. Shreya gripped the metal bar and leaned into the wind. Somewhere out there, hidden in all that gold, were animals she had only ever seen in books. She didn't know which one she'd meet first. That not-knowing felt like the best part.
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The jeep stopped near a pond where an ostrich stood fluffing its feathers like it was getting dressed for a party. It turned one way, then the other, admiring itself in the still water. Shreya laughed out loud. Her guide, a quick, quiet kid in a wide-brimmed hat, grinned back. Are all ostriches this fancy, Shreya asked. Only the ones who know they're being watched, came the answer, and the ostrich, as if it heard, puffed up even bigger.
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Next came a pride of lions sprawled under a flat-topped tree, doing absolutely nothing at all. Shreya had expected roaring and running. Instead, three lions dozed while a fourth blinked slowly at the jeep, unbothered. Lions sleep almost twenty hours a day, her guide whispered. They save their energy for when it matters. Shreya thought about that — how even the fiercest animal in the grass knew when to rest and when to leap.
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By midday they found the elephants, a whole gray family moving together like one slow cloud. The guide cupped both hands and called out, Big Mama! One elephant lifted her trunk and turned straight toward the jeep, walking closer with the calves trailing behind. She knows her name, Shreya breathed, amazed. Elephants really do recognize the names rangers give them, her guide said. She answered because she wanted to, not because she had to.
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That's when Shreya really looked at her guide for the first time — the sunburnt nose, the notebook full of careful drawings, the voice that hadn't gotten any deeper than her own. Wait, Shreya said slowly, how old are you? Eleven, the guide said, like it was nothing. My dad's the real ranger, he's driving. I just know where the animals like to hide. Shreya's mouth fell open, then she laughed. She'd been so sure her guide was a grown-up expert.
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Her name was Naledi, and she'd grown up on this land, learning its patterns the way other kids learned multiplication tables. She showed Shreya how to spot a chameleon hiding on a branch, its body slowly shifting from green to brown to match the bark. You have to be really, really quiet and really, really patient, Naledi said. Shreya held her breath until her eyes watered, and then, there it was — a tiny creature turning invisible right in front of her.
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As the sun dropped low and orange, giraffes appeared at the tree line, impossibly tall and impossibly graceful, folding themselves down to drink at a river in slow, careful movements. Shreya and Naledi sat side by side on the jeep's edge, not talking, just watching. Shreya realized she hadn't checked her watch once all day. Some days didn't need a reason to be good. This one certainly didn't.
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Driving back under a sky turning purple, Shreya flipped through the photos on her camera — the fancy ostrich, the sleepy lions, Big Mama's raised trunk, the vanishing chameleon. Naledi waved from the gate, promising to look for the chameleon again tomorrow. Shreya waved back, already planning to return. She hadn't needed a special occasion at all. Just an open day, sharp eyes, and a guide who happened to be exactly her age.
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