Monday, August 1, 2016

Gai pe charcha


Scene I : A brand new car, straight out of the garage, to the temple of a local deity for wishes. Average speed – 40/50 kms. A busy two lane road.
Bang!!! From between the divider covered with bushes jumps out a cow and slams against the car. The front of the car along with the engine beneath gets damaged badly.

Scene II : Busy road, office hours. A traffic jam. 10 minutes of relentless honking.
Finally a good Samaritan gets down from his bike and tries to disperse a huge herd of cow which has settled in the middle of the road thus leading to a total block.

Well, these are just some of the few scenes with our holier than thou, Cow which I was a witness to. Needless to say they did not inspire my religious sentiments rather spoiled my day with a good bashing from my boss over a delay for an important meeting.
The first scene in question had turned pretty violent with 2 jeeps of Gau rakshak Samiti members hijacking the site with hockeys and sticks. Poor carwallah. He tried his best to convince them it was not his fault and that “MATA” (PUN INTENDED) chose his car for blessings.  I usually am not the kind of person who gets involved in any Begani Shaadi. However this time I went all out in support of the poor fellow who was being manhandled and threatened to be dragged to court. I suggested taking a second opinion from the hurt cow over settling the blame which apparently did not go down well with the members. This I made out from the looks and raise lathis. Without worsening the situation further I wished the fellow a silent good luck and got out from the scene lest my boss made my day again.

Gujarat is known for the innumerable gaushalas it harbours. Every second locality will have a gaushala such lavish which will put our grand banquet halls to shame. And it is in Gujrat only that I have seen millions of cows at a time together on road, loitering around, causing jams, eating plastic and other hazardous products and in some cases grievously injuring passer-byes with their larger than life (pun intended again) horns. It is bewildering, the benefits that these gaushalas receive. All donations to these shelter homes are tax rebatable. Political affiliations to these are common to fly the saffron flag high. Un – surprisingly these gaushalas lot of times serve as first step to ambitious political careers.
It is saddening and utterly disgusting to see human beings being sacrificed at the altar of animals, most of them dead already. If cow is a motherly figure in India, we need to ask ourselves which mother would like to see her children torturing each other savagely. Did not God create us all equals or that we still live by the belief that some of us are more equal than the others. It is sickening to see the politics over a mere animal who otherwise has no home, no care and is often left to die once she is of no use. Dead she must already be, in her soul, in her emotions, to see the ruthlessness of the human world.
I read as a child…Man is a social animal. I have grown up to believe Man is a wild animal who possess harmful weapons such as brains which can scheme, harm and when time comes destroy.

DEDICATED TO THE COW WHOM MY FATHER TAUGHT ME TO FEED EVERY DAY NOT ONLY FOR WORSHIP BUT ALSO TO GENERATE LIVELIHOOD FOR THE ONE WHO SOLD FODDER. 

Title Credits : Barkha Dutt via twitter

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