Photo by Frida Lannerström on Unsplash

The Tiger Protectors: A Short Play

Debbie Lynn Miller

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by Debbie L. Miller

Scene One: A tea shop in a village on the edge of the Sundarbans South Wildlife Sanctuary, in Bangladesh, mid-morning. Saima Hoque is a 24-year-old Bangladeshi zoology graduate student in wildlife conservation at a university in Dhaka. Jalahar Gopal is a 52-year-old Bangladeshi Forest Guard from a village near the Sundarbans. He completed high school. Ab

SAIMA HOQUE

The obligation to protect tigers should be our primary concern.

JALAHAR GOPAL

Miss, have you visited this area before?

SAIMA HOQUE

School trips and on holiday with my parents.

JALAHAR GOPAL

Your parents are — ?

SAIMA HOQUE

Professors at university. In Dhaka.

JALAHAR GOPAL

So, you have never wanted for food, shelter, clothing? And, I trust you are comfortable in your accommodations here?

SAIMA HOQUE

Sir, I’m not some spoiled princess, if that’s what you’re on about.

JALAHAR GOPAL

My apologies. I meant, I know this village, my home for 52 years. It’s different from city life.

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Debbie Lynn Miller

Brooklyn comedy/satire/humor writer & journaliat is published in Belladonna Comedy, Frazzled, The Haven, The StopGap, Greener Pastures, & The Syndrome Magazine.