09.11.2004
Cows
Posted by justin
I read with interest in the latest India Today magazine (similar to Time magazine) a 'mail of the week' entitled GENIUNE DEVOTION:
Like the donkey sanctuary at Sagroli we need to set up shelters for cows all over the country...We claim to worship cows but make no effort to tend to them when they are old and ailing. Instead they roam the streets where they cause accidents and injure themselves.
After our minor auto-rickshaw collision with a wayward bovine we're inclined to agree. The narrow cobblestone alleyways that form the ancient heart of Varanasi are no place for a dairy queen to idle away the golden years of retirement, but too often it appears the case.
Set below monstrous curled horns, giant doleful eyes gaze nonchalantly on the inner-urban traffic chaos which the cows massive rump was instrumental in creating. Sometimes two or three gather on a corner head-to-tail in perfect uncomprehending stillness, or otherwise muzzle through alleyway rubbish.
As a solution I would suggest a rural setting for these shelters and call them 'paddocks'. And with the cows finally taken care of they could start looking at the humans.
