Book Review: Tripod Finds a Friend and other stories

“Tripod Finds a Friend and other stories” by Dr Roopa Satish and Anitha Murthy is not an ordinary book. It is a squeeze of the life experience of a Vet and her bubbling passion for wildlife. The subtext of the book is Stories of wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. Stories are heartwarming and same time revelation for city dwellers like me. Do you know that in our vicinity we have animals like Slender Loris, Pangolin, and Fox? Difference between Turtle, Terrapin and Tortoise? You might have spotted a Civet cat and Mongoose but mentioned them interchangeably, do we care? Snakes are just snakes slithering and dangerous for human beings, thanks to our commercial celluloid and popular belief. What is the difference between poisonous and venomous? And a myriad of such anecdotes from a life experience. We also got to know about many faceless unknown champions who are driven by the passion to save wildlife, create shared space for non-human species. Dr Roopa enthralled the audience kids and grown-ups alike with her animated storytelling, dark humour and sometimes narrating the harrowing experiences in a lighter vein. It’s also nice to see how young readers understand the subject matter better than adults. This is a positive sign that our civilization will progress forward along with the doomsayer’s prediction of the climate crisis and global warming. This book is well-written, and tightly edited and it deserves better print quality. I hope the next edition will correct the print quality, text alignment and fonts. Nonetheless, such shortcomings will not make the stories any lesser. In the middle of the book release, the sky opens up and mother nature showers her blessings too. Kudos Roopa and Anitha for bringing up wonderful stories. Let the world of Tripod and Mooshie create more stories, and educate us. All such stories need Happy endings.