The Hedgehog has his own India ...

I was looking at a map of Fort Cochin, wistfully recalling the joyous mayhem of its streets, the beautiful haunted interiors of its colonial mansions, the sumptuous lattes I'd sipped in its crowded art cafés, the gentle glances of its slender women, when something roused me from my reveries -

For there, on the pathway across the lawns of The Old School House, was a hedgehog, moving surprisingly quickly - 

I jumped up, shutting the page of my diary upon which the map was pasted - 

I watched the wonderful hedgehog, with its quivering delicate muzzle, zig zagging towards me over the lichened paving stones -

Perhaps the garden was a continent for this valiant questing creature - 

What marvels was it searching for, I wondered - what deity or deities presided over its world?