I was going to Faizabad with my father. I expressed my desire to see he zoo at Lucknow on the way. He agreed and we got down at Lucknow.
After taking our bath and heavy refreshment we hired a tonga and reached the zoo. We bought our tickets and entered the zoo. As we entered the compound, we saw a small house surrounded by a wire net. Inside it, we saw a number of snakes of all the sizes and colours. For the first time in my life, I saw a grey snake as thin as the small finger. There were snakes called pythons. They seemed to be two or three quintals heavy.
Then we saw a tank full of all kinds of coloured fish. They were leaping about and swimming beautifully in the clear water. In another tank we saw a small hill and rocks on which a crocodile was basking. It got down and disappeared in the water.
We also saw many kinds of birds of all kinds and colours. The ostrich was as large as camel. There were a large number of bright red little robins. They were singing. It was all a beautiful scene. I saw many kinds of monkeys also. They were black, white and red, big and small. The peacocks were dancing merrily.
Then I saw the deer and rhinoceros. The rhinoceros was a big animal with a heavy thick skin. He was surrounded by the iron bars. in fact all the animals in a cage were surrounded by a bar fence.
The most interesting thing was the wonderful sight of tigers moving about freely in the open behind the enclosures. Their place was surrounded by a broad ditch of water. So we had nothing to fear. We also saw the King of the forest, the lion. I had never seen a lion before. So I got wondered and frightened. The lion had a brown colour. His body was bare- but he had long hair on his neck. His head was large and the eyes were bright and shining. Sometimes he yawned and showed his large teeth and big mouth. I saw many other wild beasts like the panther, the leopard, and others whose names I could not know. I read the labels on every door and knew what animals they were.
We returned to Dharamshala with lasting impression on our mind.
