As he could find no banyan tree in the vicinity, Jatavallabha Mahamuni, the greatest and most powerful sadhu of all times, settled for a Sainjna tree (also Moringa or horse-radish) for his daily meditation. It was known all around the forest that he was not to be disturbed even if it was burning. The sight of him doing tapas, sitting quietly under some tree or the other, was a common sight on any normal day. But this day unfurled in an abnormal way.

For the first time in his hermit life he was distracted from his tapas, and that too by the licking of a sticky tongue on his heavily bearded face. His gleaming eyes opened to see who had disturbed his concentration. It was a friendly-looking dog. But, the sadhu, as was expected of him, was all but friendly.

"Abblica Babblica Doople Woople turn this dog into a turtle", he cursed with the great fury for which he was famous, and sprinkled some holy water from his holy jug on the dog. And there stood a camel in front of him.

The Mahamuni was more surprised than angered. He had never experienced such humiliation before. If anyone ever dared to go through his luminous history, one would find how he had been responsible for the disappearance of a good many people and also for half of the new species of flora and fauna.

Never had his boons failed. One may say that the chroniclers may have. In all probabilities, they have. But, definitely not in the case of his curses. He had made an active mole which once toppled his jug the hugest mountain on earth, turned a happy sloth which remained indifferent to his presence into an ant and pushed the dumb dodo which couldn't help him find his way out of a jungle into extinction.

Given his past, it was no wonder that Jatavallabha Mahamuni strengthened his will within seconds. The fluent flow of curses followed in an unimaginable (for the normal ones) speed. "Abblica Babblica Doople Yee Kat, turn this camel into a dirty old cat," he said and again sprinkled some holy water on the camel. Springing before his eyes was a Kang (Though it is normal to call young Kangaroo a joey these days, in the olden days, it was a Kang before it grew and only after it reached its maturity was it called a Kang-grew).

That the muni was taken aback was evident from the fact that he had moved by a foot or so towards the eastern side of the forest. But he wouldn't give up so soon. With much more vigour, this time he said, "Abblica Babblica Doonda Wanda, turn this Kang into a Panda." And the usual quota of water was sprinkled too. A serious-looking tiger so near him was no welcome sight even for the omnipotent Jatavallabha.

Quickly, he sprinkled the last few drops contained in his jug on the tiger and mumbled, more in self-doubt than in fear, "Abblica Babblica Dumbo Big Bag, turn this tiger back into the old dog." Thanks to all those years of devoted tapas (or may be this time he got his mantra right), the tiger changed its form right before his eyes and tuned into its old self.

When it licked his feet, he felt as if he had won a free ticket to heaven through a raffle. He excused himself for discontinuing his routine and retired for the day. For once God was happy that He had helped restore the ecological balance.