The lesson was called Baby Bhakat. As he flipped through the pages, he came across photographs of a tiny palm civet nestled in a woman's arms. Another showed a baby lying beside the animal.

It took him a moment to realise that the child in the photograph was him.

For the teenager from Kampur in Assam's Nagaon district, it was an unexpected reunion with a story he had never really known.

Seventeen years earlier, when Gibon was just six months old, his parents had raised an orphaned Asian palm civet alongside him.

Today, that extraordinary act of compassion has found a place in the NCERT Class 10 English curriculum, introducing students across India to a story that began in a small Assam town.

A cub with nowhere to go

The story dates back to 2009, when a tiny palm civet cub, locally known as Jahamaal, fell from a tree in Tetelisora village in Nagaon district.

Barely two weeks old, the cub had little chance of surviving on its own. Like all Asian palm civets, it depended entirely on its mother. Born with its eyes closed, the species requires weeks of maternal care before it can survive independently.

When villagers found the cub, they called Dharani Saikia, a wildlife enthusiast from Vrindaban Nagar in Kampur, affectionately known as the "Forest Man" for rescuing injured and distressed wild animals.

Along with his elder son, Dharani brought the cub home.

The family soon faced a difficult........

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