The animals I haven’t seen

I was only ten when I didn’t see for the first time. We were visiting a temple in Tirunelli in Wayanad to pray for my grandfather’s soul. I lost my mother’s hand and wandered among the crowds. When I was returned to her after a separation of fifteen minutes,
 she didn’t say,”Where were you? We were so worried.”
 But that didn’t break my heart.
 Pointing to a hill in the distance she said “We saw a herd of elephants grazing, over there.”
 Seeing my face fall she said,”Don’t worry. They were so far away. Just a bunch of black dots among the greenery, going up the hill.”
 I had missed the sight of my life. But that wasn’t the only time.
 “Hey… See…” words had failed my husband when he tried to show me something. When the bus had pulled away far enough he found them, “Silhouette of an entire herd of elephants. There was even a baby elephant.”
 No. I hadn’t. I was looking at the exact same spot he was showing me with similar human eyes. I was the one who always found a reason to take the route through the forest. I was always looking, excited and jumping with joy and hope every time I saw a forest department board with elephants or a bear on it. I even had the window seat. I only never saw anything.
 Over the course of my lifetime I have not seen a tiger ,a leopard, snakes and porcupines. I have heard different versions of “If you were here a bit earlier (a second, a few minutes, an hour ago, in the morning), a wild animal (a gaur, a snow leopard, an archaeopteryx) was just here, right here.”
 In the UK, I have managed to not see seals, otters, dolphins and whales despite being in all the right places. Now I know you might be thinking,”These animals don’t just walk by for you to see. You are over reacting.” But how do you explain everyone seeing foxes all the time. They are everywhere, or so I am told. Once I was coming back in a taxi from Manchester. We were both asleep. When I woke up my companion said,”Did you see that? So many foxes on the road. I didn’t want to disturb you. You were sleeping.”
 All this has led me to think deeply on this issue and I am sure some of you might be suffering in silence too. Are we just extremely skilled at not seeing? I don’t think so. Let me offer you an alternate explanation, a truth that we have been fooled into not seeing, a revolutionary idea if you will.
 These animals that we don’t see are mythical. They don’t exist. Believe only in what you see. Believe in spiders, flies, rats, ants, dogs, cats and maybe even monkeys. Don’t believe in tigers or dinosaurs. The whole world has got together to make us feel that we missed the bus on something. This is so typical of the world just like it would have us believe, if we succumb to it, deep in our hearts of happy families, satisfying corporate careers, ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ startups and if you are audacious, even peace in it.