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This happened while I was in U.S. of A doing my post-graduate studies in a mid-Western University during the early 1960s, when I was around 30 years, with a wife and a four-year old daughter back in India.In retrospect it sounds crazy and idiotic, but at the time I honestly did not know how crazy it was!I was quite the BMOC (‘Big Man On Campus’) — the things I did beyond my very demanding studies will take me too long to list, and would be irrelevant anyway. Suffice it to say, I had made many, many friends not only from my Department (Civil Engineering), but also from many other departments across campus.I was exposed to the numerous extra-curricular activities on campus, and the almost endless spectrum of fun activities that most American youth indulged in: bowling, horse-riding, water-skiing, snow-skiing, to name a few.I was not good at any of these, but I gamely tried everything at least once. Horse-riding gave me a sore bum and back after the first few hours; water and snow skiing were aborted when I found my ankles were not strong enough to hold the skis right. Bowling was a disaster as I went into the gutter most of the time, but my friends used me to handicap unevenly matched teams so I kept at that.Anyway, it was through one of these groups that I came to know Scotty and Steffie.***I have experienced many unusual things in life, many of which may appear weird or even crazy to my kith and kin. If I had thought about them, I might have felt they were unusual, but not ‘crazy’. If they were indeed crazy, I did not know they were such at the time!Here is one of the crazier ones. Even today, when I relive through the experience, it is difficult for me to decide if it was dream, nightmare or real!This happened while I was in U.S. of A doing my post-graduate studies in a mid-Western University during the early 1960s, when I was around 30 years, with a wife and a four-year old daughter back in India.In retrospect it sounds crazy and idiotic, but at the time I honestly did not know how crazy it was!I was quite the BMOC (‘Big Man On Campus’) – the things I did beyond my very demanding studies will take me too long to list, and would be irrelevant anyway. Suffice it to say, I had made many, many friends not only from my Department (Civil Engineering), but also from many other departments across campus.I was exposed to the numerous extra-curricular activities on campus, and the almost endless spectrum of fun activities that most American youth indulged in: bowling, horse-riding, water-skiing, snow-skiing, to name a few.I was not good at any of these, but I gamely tried everything at least once. Horse-riding gave me a sore bum and back after the first few hours; water and snow skiing were aborted when I found my ankles were not strong enough to hold the skis right. Bowling was a disaster as I went into the gutter most of the time, but my friends used me to handicap unevenly matched teams so I kept at that.Anyway, it was through one of these groups that I came to know Scotty and Steffie.***Scotty was my 23-year old campus mate, tall, strong, handsome and silent; Steffie was Scott’s petite, pretty and smart wife, 20 years – both real first names. I will not mention their home town for fear somebody may start an investigation and somebody else may get into trouble. They lived close to a mid-sized city in a mid-west state.Steffie took me under her wing as her elder brother. One time I stayed at their mansion – oh, they owned a large piece of a mountain we could see from there! Their three-year old son took such a fancy to me, that when Steffie showed me my bedroom in the basement and left, he brought his friend Rocky – a smooth grey roundish stone a baby’s fist-size on which he had drawn two eyes and a mouth – to whom he introduced me as ‘Uncle Kris’, and promptly fell asleep, hugging him, and snuggling into the crook of my arm.Steffie came looking for him a little later, and I asked if it was okay for him to sleep with me, and she agreed. At the door, she said, “Kris, tomorrow I will introduce you to Leona”, and smiling at my questioning look, added: “… my favourite lioness at the zoo! Tomorrow is my visiting day.”I remember falling into a deep sleep myself, dreaming about Liona.***Early next morning after a quick breakfast, Steffie drove me to the local zoo, on whose Committee she was a member as a patron. The zoo was yet to open to the public, but the gatekeeper tipped his cap to Steffie and let us in, so we had the whole place to ourselves.Inside, I hear various bird calls and animal sounds. Obviously, it is wake-up and breakfast time. Steffie and I wander around the different enclosures, she being hailed by every caretaker and official we meet, and being recognised with warm hand-licking and other expressions of affection by most animals we touch, some of whom even accept my patting at Steffie’s urging.We finally arrive at the lion enclosures. In one of the barred cages lies the lioness, Leona, snoozing. Her handler Bob (– not his real name), middle aged, muscular and wiry, is inside doing some checking.Steffie says “Hey Bob, how is Leona today?”Leona lifts her head hearing her name. Bob squats next to her and says “Fine.”“Where is Muffin?” Aside to me, “… her two-day old baby.”“Oh, the vet is checking him over and giving a shot or two.”We get close to the bars still behind the guard-rail about three feet away from the cage. Leona looks at Steffie with lazy eyes, eyelids drooping, and does not stir.Bob says, “Would you like to visit with Leona today, Miz Steffie?”This tells me a couple of things right away: (1) Steffie ‘visits’ Leona frequently … like dropping in for tea? (2) Steffie is gentry, with privileges extended only to patrons!Steffie: “No Bob, not today, Kris here is from India and he may not like it.”Bob looks at me with interest and says: “India, hey, isn’t it where the Bengal Tiger and the Gir Lion run wild? Does he know Sabu? ... He should have no problem!”You must understand that in the 1960s most American had not met many Asians and did not know much about India. Many knew India through Rudyard Kipling and have seen Sabu as the ‘Elephant Boy’ in black and white movies of the 1930s and 40s. They truly believed that all Indians were quite familiar with wild life, and knew Sabu. So Bob might have meant exactly what he said.Steffie: “Kris, would you want to come in with me?”Well, this would be something different which I would never be able to do back home! After all, it is Steffie’s idea, not mine!I now believe that my sub-conscious might have had a temporary jolt at the prospect of entering a lion’s cage, but my new-found popularity and success in the many things I tried on campus must have gone to my head, in view of the one fact staring me in the face: A girl younger than I, smaller than I, goes into the cage ‘frequently’ and here I, a full-blooded male from the land of tigers and lions, stand thinking about whether I should accompany her!? If she can do it, why can’t I?I nod ‘yes’. Bob walks slowly to the cage door and unlatches it. Steffie and I swing ourselves between the top and middle guard-rails and climb the short ladder into the cage. Bob gently closes it behind us and walks back to Leona’s side.We are about ten feet from the face of the lioness. I am just behind Steffie, a little to her left. Leona lifts her head up from her paws, and looks at Steffie first, and then shifts her eyes a little and looks at me. I can look into the black liquid pools of her bright irises, and see them slowly narrow a little. Her tail twitches.Steffie takes one step, then a second one. I follow her every movement, equally gently, breathing shallow.Leona folds one leg up.Bob stiffens and sidles a couple of feet towards us.Steffie (and I) take another small step. We are now about six feet from Leona’s face, close enough for me to see her excellent sharp teeth and whiskers, and to smell her warm breath.Do I hear a low grunt from her throat?Bob starts making soothing sounds and slowly backs towards us, kind of trying to insert himself between the now fully alert Leona and the two of us.He says, slowly, in a sideways whisper: “Back-slow-to-the-gate.”Steffie does not turn around, but reaches back and holds my hand reassuringly, and gives a slight pressure cueing me to back up, which I do, as quietly as she and Bob.Leona slowly, majestically, stands up, both front legs and then both back legs, shakes her head gently.I can now see the full impact of what I was actually confronting. She is a fine, healthy specimen, about eight or nine feet long and three feet tall. God, let this be a dream, please?!I do not panic. Actually, I am numb, just not feeling or thinking anything. My mind is a blank. Only my limbs move gently and steadily backwards to the gate.Meanwhile Bob, murmuring softly to Leona like he would to a child, still keeping himself between Leona and us, reaches for the gate latch and slides it open. Steffie pushes it enough for us to slide through. As soon as Steffie and I step down to the ladder, Bob closes it.Steffie and I stand quiet, still facing the cage, in the space between it and the guard-rail, breathing again.Leona stretches and sits down again on her haunches warily looking at us – more at me, I guess – yawns and settles back down, kind of to say ‘good riddance’, maybe thinking again about her Muffin!Bob relaxes, looks sideways at us still watching Leona, gives us a lop-sided smile and says, “Sorry Miz Steffie, Leona is still very nervous. It has been only two days you know since she birthed Muffin, and she lost two of her three cubs. Bring your friend along next week, will you … she should be alright by then?”We get out through the guard-rail. Steffie is not even ruffled.She smiles sweetly at me and asks, “Are you disappointed you couldn’t pat her, Kris?”I don’t think I got the full impact of my crazy action even then … after, it took me a few days and some deep thinking of all the other ways the episode might have ended, for the shock to sink in.At that time, I just say, “It is ok, Steffie; we tried.”But I add, “I think I will sit down for a minute”, and simply slumped down on the concrete pavement, as dignified as my petrified limbs would allow, letting Steffie gently lift me up after a while.I just had not realised how crazy the whole episode was, at least my part. We return home and I plump into my bed again and pass out!***Steffie shakes me awake and says, “Kris, rise and shine, time to go!”The rest will be too much of an anti-climax for me to go into.***Back home and a few years later, while watching a National Geographic Special on wild-life photography with my wife and grown-up daughter, the scene showed an intrepid wild-life enthusiast fondling a lion in the wild, I remembered the whole thing, and blurted out something about my having been in a lion’s cage in America. I quickly corrected myself by saying it was a just a dream … no, no, a nightmare!They did not believe me at first and laughed derisively. My daughter asked when I would take them to the movie! That really put my back up, and I went into details, and asked them what if it had been true – after all, if an American housewife could do it, why couldn’t I?I was sorrier they believed me! Wife and daughter glared at me in shock. I got an earful from my wife about how my callous disregard for the family, apart from about my own self – I could not blame her.Of course, I swore on her Thaali (– the sacred pendant the bridegroom ties around their bride’s neck at wedding) that I would never, never dream of doing such a stupid thing (– again?) Would I?***Whether it was real or not, that sure was a happy ending to what might have been a double or triple tragedy.For some time thereafter, I was still curious about a few things:How could Steffie be so casual about visiting a lioness within her cage? She must have been slowly getting to know the animals over years, prodded by her natural courage and deep interest. But she might not have realised how my fresh scent would affect the new mother.What would have happened if Leona had jumped on me? I did not see Bob having any gun around his hip. Maybe it was in an ankle-holster?What if, to save us, he had shot Leona? Would he have been in time to avoid harm to us, and himself?What if I – and possibly Steffie – had been mauled by then?What would Bob have said to the investigating officers … surely it could not have been legal for him to let anybody into the cage? How would he have fared with the law?What would have been the outcome for Steffie, patron or not, if she had been alive?How would I (if alive) have faced my family, with a maimed body – tell them a lioness attacked me while I was socially visiting some friends?If I had died what would have become of my mother, siblings, wife and daughter? If I had been injured, how could I have taken care of them? … Enough of all these horrible imaginary scenarios!Why would I do such a rash thing? The way I rationalized my stunt to myself was that I had been brain-washed by the American spirit of adventure, which changed me from a timid Brahmin boy with very traditional traits, to a physically conforming but mentally wild kid! At the time, I must have just thought of the fun part and ignored the consequences. If it was a dream, it was too good to be true!Now that I am half a century older and wiser, now that I have had decades of scientific and professional experience in risk assessment and management, I do know that before you get into any new venture, you should do a risk analysis of causes and consequences of every action you plan to take, and do only those whose worst consequences you can afford. Clearly, I would never let anybody do such a thing!Yes, had I visualized the one credible worst consequence, namely being mauled or killed by the animal, I should not have entered the cage, and simply watched Steffie’s astounding doings from outside!***My message to my readers? Don’t try anything like this if you value your life! I think anybody in his right mind faced with the choice would have decided against the huge obvious risk.***Steffie, Scotty … If you are still around, and if you happen to read this, please, please get in touch with me, so at least I would have authentication of my tall tale – or the explanation to my wife!Or, … was the whole thing a dream? (You wish!)Prof Krishna27 Jan. 2018 [Edited, 1 August 2018]