A lottery ticket to the Land of Piranhas!

​Red bellied Piranhas (Pygocentrus nattereri) are fish native to South America, and found in warm freshwater (mostly the Amazon River). A medium sized fish, red-bellied piranhas have a thin shape when viewed head-on but from the side they appear broad and round.

They range between 10 to 14 inches in length and can weigh over 7 pounds. Usually found in fast moving portions of rivers, piranhas will move to flooded riverside regions to feed and reproduce.

Using sharp triangular teeth, red-bellied piranhas are opportunistic feeders, the feed on insects, crustaceans, fish, amphibians, birds, small mammals, algae and water plants.

Working together as a group to prey on larger food sources; piranhas will sometimes use a scout fish to assess a potential prey, if the animal is too lively then the group will not attack. Piranhas are known as ferocious predators, but do not attack or eat humans unless a large number of them have been starved for a very long time.

They also tend to only feed on weak, injured, dying, or dead animals in the wild. They do not stay in groups in order to pack-hunt for larger animals, but instead group for protection against predators. Though known as a dangerous carnivore, they have a veryimportant role as a scavenger in the ecosystem.

Thilina did not dare to meet Tharanga’s eyes. Tharanga was glaring at him now, fuming in anger.

“How stupid can you get?” Tharanga demanded, as he flung his new hat down on the ground in despair.

“I.. I am really sorry Ayya..” a shame-faced Thilina apologized to his elder brother. “I didn’t know; it is entirely my fault, I agree.”

“Of course it’s your fault, Malli!” roared Tharanga. Malli was the Sinhalese word for ‘younger brother’. “I left everything to you! And I was a fool to trust you!”

“We can still enjoy the vacation”, murmured a disgruntled Thilina, who was beginning to look grumpy now. He felt that Tharanga was going too far in his rage, especially since he had already apologized several times.

“You said America! This is America? This is where we end up? You and your cursed lottery ticket!” Tharanga pulled at his brand new T-shirt in fury.

“Well, it’s still a prize, brother”, said Thilina eagerly. “And the flight tickets were free, anyway!”

“But what about all this money we have spent on food, new clothes and other stuff? All the tall tales we told our friends and family back home? And.. and … what about me? I’ll die in this horrible land!” Tharanga wailed, his head in his hands.

Tharanga and Thilina were two brothers who belonged to a place called Kandy, on the island country of Sri Lanka. Tharanga, the elder brother, was illiterate, and ran a small grocery, struggling to make ends meet.

Thilina, meanwhile, being the younger one, depended on his elder brother for survival. He spent most of his time making up useless business schemes.

His one passion in life was buying lottery tickets, and he hoped he would win the first prize some day and become a millionaire.

Though Tharanga grumbled each time he gave the money to buy a ticket, he secretly hoped that Thilina’s optimism might work.

And one fine day, Thilina really won the lottery! There were celebrations in the family and the elders thumped Thilina on the back, saying that he had amounted to something after all. The prize however, wasn’t a million bucks like they had hoped.

It turned out to be free air tickets for a trip to America! Nevertheless, Thilina and Tharanga were happy, because, given their financial conditions, going to America was nothing short of a dream.

Tharanga spent every minute daydreaming of starting a small grocery in New York, Chicago or Washington DC. He hoped to make the most of their short visit! Thilina, meanwhile, had his sights set onnothing less than Hollywood!

Unfortunately for them, neither had read the details of the prize trip and what exactly“America” meant. Tharanga, of course, could not read; Thilina, though literate, was too excited to make sense of the terms and conditions written in fine print.

The destination
printed on the air ticket- ‘Lima’ – did not strike an iota of doubt in Thilina’s mind. It was only after the flight landed at their destination, did they realize where they had ended up “Welcome to South America. You are now at Lima, Peru. We hope you enjoyed your flight.”

The two brothers now sat at the airport with woebegone faces, a sob escaping from Tharanga now and then.

Almost an hour later, a Peruvian native came up to them.

“Hola! ¿cómo estás?” he asked, and followed it up with a string of questions in Spanish.

Tharanga and Thilina gave each other blank looks. They didn’t know Spanish, and couldn’t make head or tail of what the man was saying.

The man suddenly stopped and asked suspiciously, “Espanol?”

The brothers shook their heads.

“English?” queried the man again.

Neither Thilina nor Tharanga knew much English, but Thilina nodded his head vigorously in answer. “Yes, yes. English.”

“You two? Lottery winners? America trip?” asked the man in broken English.

“Two.. us. Lottery. Yes, yes. Trip, trip”, answered Thilina in equally broken English.

The man grinned. “Follow me”, he said, “Me Diego.. me guide for your trip.”

He led the way out of the airport, the brothers in tow. After walking for a long time in complete silence, Thilina asked the ‘guide’, “Where taxi? Where hotel?”

The guide looked puzzled. “No hotel. No taxi. Only Amazon river trip.”

Tharanga looked mutinous. “What kind of cheap trip is this?” he hissed at Thilina. “They first said America, but brought us to this wild country. Then they send us a guide who seems to know nothing about guiding tourists, but says we have to go on a jungle safari!”
Thilina always looked at the bright side of things. “Well, atleast we will see some wildlife—

like the sloth.. the Tamarin… the Glass frog … the Anaconda….”

“The A.. A… A..Anaconda?” Tharanga’s jaw dropped in horror.

Diego, who seemed to have heard them, turned around. “Si, si, the anaconda”, he replied cheerfully. “Also Jaguar…..poison frog… Tapirs… Piranhas…”

“Piranhas?” Tharanga seemed to be having a heart attack.

“Oh God, all because of my idiotic brother I have come to this dangerous land”, he wailed. “How will I get out of this place alive? Why should we even go on a trip down a river that is infested with Piranha fish? Should we bring about our own death? I’ve heard stories about them… they tear a living creature to shreds within seconds…”

“Don’t worry Tharanga, we won’t be jumping into the river, right? We will probably have a very nice houseboat, with all comforts, which is probably why they didn’t give put us up at a hotel”, said a beaming Thilina, who was enjoying the sights and sounds of Peru.

The guide smirked, seeing Tharanga’s panic. “We reach boarding harbour”, he announced after a while. The Amazon river was beautiful to behold, its waters rushing and gushing.

Tharanga cheered up when he saw a huge boat, modelled like a cruise ship. He rushed forward with other tourists who were heading that way.

“Hey, you— no, no! That boat not for you”, the guide stopped him. He pointed to a small, old broken down canoe that was tied to a pole. “We go in that boat” smiled Diego.

Tharanga was appalled. He refused to go, but the guide and Thilina forced him onto the canoe. “I want to go home”, he cried. “This canoe will drown us. Worse, I will be killed by the Piranhas in these waters!”

“Nothing will happen, Ayya”, soothed Thilina, but Tharanga was inconsolable. He hardly noticed the rainbow coloured Macaws and the Golden monkeys that Diego pointed out as the canoe made its way downstream, and only half heard the story about the fearsome rapids and dangerous waterfalls in the region. “Oh God”, he prayed. “I will come to the Sacred Temple of the Tooth everyday if I get back to Kandy alive!”

The first day passed without incident. Several other boats and canoes carrying tourists passed them, and Tharanga mustered up a little courage. They stopped on the banks for the night, and made preparations for bed.

Diego set up a tent, but Tharanga refused to sleep there. After ensuring that the waters there did not contain any Piranha fish, he said, “This place is full of bugs, mosquitoes, reptiles and wild animals. I will not sleep on land.

It is safer for me to sleep on the canoe.”When Thilina made his way to the tent, Tharanga held him back. “Malli, stay here with me. I don’t trust this Diego”, he whispered to his brother. “He may take away all our belongings and leave us here in the jungle, while he escapes on the canoe!”

“Look Ayya, you sleep on the canoe if you want”, he said. “I’ ll sleep in the tent, come what may!”

An angry Tharanga went to sleep on the canoe. His sleep was disturbed and his dreams hazy, and he could feel himself falling... falling.. down…

Suddenly he opened his eyes. It was morning already. “Why hasn’t Thilina called me—” He suddenly screamed, for, to his horror, he found that the canoe was adrift in the river, with himself in it!

“Help!” he called. But there were no other canoes or boats in sight. The river course did not seem as straight as they previous day’s; there were sharp turns and rocks jutting out at frequent intervals. The waters seemed to be flowing much faster too. He realized that his boat had drifted towards the rapids!

The canoe was no longer in his control. It went faster and faster, in a haphazard manner, while Tharanga held on to it for dear life. It finally crashed against some rocks and Tharanga was thrown into the waters!

Tharanga could hardly swim, but managed not to drown. With great difficulty, he caught hold of a branch that was hanging from a tree that branched over the river. He was completely under water, except for his face, and he gulped in a few deep breaths.

And that was when he spotted them— circling around in the waters— swimming towards him—the Piranhas!

They were small, but their red bellies gave away their identity. Tharanga almost fainted, but held on to the branch giddily. This is the end, he thought. It was in his fate to meet his death in a land so far away from his own, that too eaten by fish!

He waited silently, deciding not to resist fate anymore. Seconds passed, then minutes. But nothing happened. Why weren’t they attacking him? Finally, Tharanga plucked up enough courage to pull himself out. As he dragged himself onto land, he spotted a man sitting there, half hidden by the undergrowth!

“You saw me going to be eaten by piranhas, yet you didn’t save me!” shouted Tharanga accusingly in whatever little English he knew.
“Piranha don’t eat men”, said the man scornfully. “Only when they’re hungry— starving. Not otherwise.”

By: Sneha Verghese