Is there a reason you chose to get a tiger tattoo?
"I have a very distinct memory with my father at the Thiruvananthapuram Zoo, of us looking at a tiger in its enclosure together. This memory is very special to me because he passed away very soon afterwards."
The Scary Tibbit
18.
Maitreyee Mhatre, 25
From Maharashtra
Recited the story in their mothertongue, Marathi
One dark evening, my grandmother’s mother was telling her grandchildren a story. Her grandchildren are my grandmother’s nieces, who were about the same age as my grandmother. The story that was being told was of the great and the ferocious Tibbit.
My great grandmother started the story saying
“On an evening like this one, a grandmother like me was narrating a story to grandchildren like you. In that story, there was a scary ferocious tiger.”
That’s when her grandchildren interrupted her and asked,
“But, grandmother, aren’t you afraid of the tiger?”
My great-grandmother said
“No, I’m not afraid of the tiger, I’m only afraid of the Tibbit”
Hearing this, the grandchildren started shivering in fear, their teeth started clattering. Their grandmother who wasn’t even afraid of tigers, was afraid of the great and the ferocious Tibbit. What could this creature be?
The grandchildren asked their grandmother to stop the story, but my grandmother who was listening in told them to keep on listening and reach the end of the story. So, my great-grandmother continued, but the thought of the Tibbit did not leave their mind. They asked what exactly is a Tibbit?
My great-grandmother looked into the overcast sky and said,
“On days like this, when the rain pours down, the water leaks through the roof of my hut, entering our home. It makes the sound
Tibbit…tibbit…tibbit…
And that is what I am most afraid of, our home getting destroyed by this sound and what it entails”
