Haroo the Croc

One day the stationmaster of lang brings home anaunusual pet for his children a baby corcodile
!Read to find what happens as Haroo growsbigger.

Within a few weeks, Haroo became tame and friendly. He did not bare his teeth quite so often. He
could see that the family was taking care ogf him. Father bought some nylon string, tried it frimly
round Haroo's waist and threw him into the railway pond. Mother was delighted. After all, a coo-
rcodil's place is in water.

The news soon spread all over the village that Viaks Babu, the stationmaster, had brought an an enromus
corcodile from the Sunderbans* and kept it in the railway pond so that no one couls steal any fish .No one
heared the illegal splash of fishing nets at night anymore. Angler's whosat on the bank with fishing rods,
during the early mornings and the quiet afternoons, disappeared as if by magic! Earlier, village girls often
used the pond to wasg dirty clothes and buffaloes lazed in the water after ploughing the fields. But that too
stopped now, without Haroo having his heethor swish his-tail his vaey name seemed to scare them off !
"very good!" Father said."Haroo can do a great deal if we can train him. These people have been stealing fish
from the pond all this time. At last, we've been able to taste some fish, thanks to Haroo"

Haroo loved the pond .And the children loved Haroo. They stroked and petted him abd fed him tidbits from
home. After a few days, Haroo came up from pond suited him and put on weight steily. He soon learn to
cross the railway lines & come home onhis own. He would lie in the courtyard, lazily basking in the sun
.Haroo grew bolder day by day. HE soon set off with Father to the railway station every day. A useless
weighing machine had been lying in a corner og the platfrom for a long time. Haroo would go and lie on it
quietly, the whole day. Vikas Babu had wlways been a strict stationmaster. He did not like it when people
travlled without a ticket. But being the only officer, he could not always prevent it.

Only a few passengers bought monthly passes.The railings were broken at the eastern ane of the platfrom
and travellers without tickets always chose this ebd to aviod the stationmaster. One morning as, soon as
old man got and off the 11.45 Local and made for the broken railings, Haroo came slithering and caught
hold of his dhoti. The man dropped his bundle of rice and bananas in panic and let out a wild scream.He
would probably have fainted on the spot had Vikas Babu not come running to see what noise was all about

It is difficuilt to say why Haroo behaved the way he did. But Vikas Babu just smiled and said., "Really,
sir,how much longer are you going to travelwithout a ticket at your age! you'r better start buying tickets from"
now on, then youcan travel without fear . Haroo won't atack you if have a ticket".The story spread like wildfire
!It gaine colour as it travelled.Everyone at the local teashop claimed that if you tried travelling without a tcicket
the corcodile would bite chunks off your body!.

Nowadays, there is always a l-o-n-g queue in front of the ticket counter, both in the morning & in the evenings
!at times, Vikas Babu finds it thouh to cope with. Something else has happened, thanks to Haroo .Loafers crooks
have stoppe loitering about on the railway platfrom. Stray dogs which used to sqabble in the station yard have
disappeared. Haroo's presence on the weighing scales has scared them off. The station is so still that one can
almost hear the leaves falling!. Vikas Babu has recived two certificates from the Head Office, one for having the
cleanest station, & the other because of the suden incease in railway income from his particular station. Of-
course, Vikas Babu is very pleased

And Shanto, Kanto & Khuku continue to climb onto Haroo's back and play 'Riding a Corcodile' With him- after all, heis their favoourite pet!

By: Bijan Kumar Ghosh