This is a very sad and bizarre story of a young man from India who was raised by wolves until 6 years of age. When the hunters found him surrounded by wolves in a cave, he was entirely unable to make contact with humans. They named him Sanichar which means Saturday in Hindu since he was found on a fine weather Saturday evening. Late in his relatively short life, he had finally stood upright and dressed himself, still, the gulf between human and animal behavior was too wide for him to overcome. After spending almost 30 years in an orphanage with other abandoned kids, he never learned to speak, sign, or other human attitudes. Dramatically, the only human trait he quickly adopted was heavy smoking. When he died due to tuberculosis, he was only 35.
I have kept these pics after I found them while surfing the web, and was deeply swayed by them. I eventually began to challenge the idea of living in and romanticizing nature. On top of all the concerns that come to mind through Sanichar's story, there is an ultimate question that needs to be considered: what was the best for Sanichar? Letting him live in the wild and die because of those conditions? Or working and waiting in the hope of turning him into a proper human he would have never fitted? Such a dilemma!
