::: Star Weekend Magazine :::

View from the Bottom

Grandson of Tarzan Destroyed Jungles

Shahnoor Wahid

You all have heard about Tarzan, the abandoned human child who grew up in a forest amidst animals. He was breastfed by a tigress along with her cubs and protected by other animals like lions and elephants. As a teenager and an adult we find him swinging by wild vines from tree top to tree top with his ape friend clinging to his waist. He swam like a fish through a colony of crocks and rode on the back of an elephant when travelling on plain lands of Africa. The famous yell of Tarzan from the top of a lofty tree chilled the blood of his enemies and they hurried back to their holes. His romantic escapades began when he rescued beautiful Jane from an airplane crash.

Well, it's been a long time since we heard about Tarzan and Jane. For some time we did hear about his son who also grew up in the jungle in their tree-top villa. He proved to be as deft in swinging by a vine and chasing wild animals as his illustrious father. But then there was a huge communication gap between Tarzan and his family and us. Hollywood also stopped making movies based on this great family.

Then, lo and behold! Like a bolt from the blue, one day we discovered Tarzan's grandson living in the jungles of Bangladesh! He looked very much like a Bangali and he also behaved like one! And he went by the name of Osman Gani! Did Tarzan's son marry a Bangladeshi in London? We know Tarzan is a British by birth but how he came to Bangladesh is a mystery. Well it does not matter how he came here but the fact of the matter is that Gani the grandson has been jumping from one tree to another in various forest ranges of the country and doing terrible things to the trees to put Tarzan to shame. Tarzan was an avowed lover of trees and protector of animals but Gani the grandson was not endowed with such finer taste. He proved to be a destroyer. He has been cutting the trees down and selling them in the darkness of the nights to amass wealth! In ten years he has successfully levelled a number of forests including the Sundarbans. He took money from the poachers who killed beautiful animals like tigers, deer, birds and so on. He allowed his brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, father-in-law and other close relations to denude one forest after another and took a share of the loot.

Gani the grandson did not live on a tree-top. He preferred to live in a flat, rather in one of his many flats, in comfort. He loved to sleep on a mattress made with cash money. He loved to rest his head on a pillow made with cash money.

Gani has smudged the name of his grandfather, the one and only Tarzan of the Apes. Today Gani is standing alone in a cell holding the iron bars, like a caged animal. The animals of the forest loved his grandfather but they hate him. They silently shed tears remembering the hundreds of animals brutally killed by Gani's men for meat, horn and skin. They want to see him kept in the cage forever.