Who is the Animal and who the Man?
It was Kaanum Pongal Day, when people go out to see one another and spread and share cheer. It was also the day after Maattu-p-Pongal, the day on which humans show that they love and care for the animals that they share this world with, particularly cattle without which agriculture would not have advanced to where it is today.
On a road parallel to the famed Marina of Chennai, vehicles were locked tail to bumper and crawling at slower than the pace of a snail with a terrible hang-over. This is what enabled me to see across to the left. And I wish I had not seen what I did. A magnificent bull, beautifully built with long horns, was being cruelly driven forth by a man in a grey shirt and dhoti. A day after Maattu-p-Pongal it was, remember.
Somebody had left a lot of cooked rice uneaten on the pavement, and the hungry bull bent its head low to eat a bit of it, the poor thing. The man behind the animal would have none of it. What did he care how hungry the poor bull was! He slashed sharply with his whip across its back, and when the poor animal still tried to grab a bite from the mound of rice somebody not wanting it had left behind, he twisted the bull’s tail hard. The bull grunted in helpless dismay, and moved on. Hunger was preferable to this torment.
Where was the man taking the bull and what was he going to earn from using it? How could barely a couple of minutes have affected his ends if he had let the bull eat the food it so grievously needed?
As I wondered so, my thoughts jumped to the recent horrendous killings of children and adolescents of Nithari in Noida. Had any thought even fleetingly crossed the minds of the killers -- of the suffering they were inflicting on their victims, or were they thinking only of what they stood to gain from their deeds?
The man on the pavement in Chennai, tormenting the hungry bull, seemed no different to me, from the horror inflicters of Noida who went about merrily killing human beings for their own pleasure and gain.
Think, and shudder to anticipate. Have a happy New Year as best as you may!
It was Kaanum Pongal Day, when people go out to see one another and spread and share cheer. It was also the day after Maattu-p-Pongal, the day on which humans show that they love and care for the animals that they share this world with, particularly cattle without which agriculture would not have advanced to where it is today.
On a road parallel to the famed Marina of Chennai, vehicles were locked tail to bumper and crawling at slower than the pace of a snail with a terrible hang-over. This is what enabled me to see across to the left. And I wish I had not seen what I did. A magnificent bull, beautifully built with long horns, was being cruelly driven forth by a man in a grey shirt and dhoti. A day after Maattu-p-Pongal it was, remember.
Somebody had left a lot of cooked rice uneaten on the pavement, and the hungry bull bent its head low to eat a bit of it, the poor thing. The man behind the animal would have none of it. What did he care how hungry the poor bull was! He slashed sharply with his whip across its back, and when the poor animal still tried to grab a bite from the mound of rice somebody not wanting it had left behind, he twisted the bull’s tail hard. The bull grunted in helpless dismay, and moved on. Hunger was preferable to this torment.
Where was the man taking the bull and what was he going to earn from using it? How could barely a couple of minutes have affected his ends if he had let the bull eat the food it so grievously needed?
As I wondered so, my thoughts jumped to the recent horrendous killings of children and adolescents of Nithari in Noida. Had any thought even fleetingly crossed the minds of the killers -- of the suffering they were inflicting on their victims, or were they thinking only of what they stood to gain from their deeds?
The man on the pavement in Chennai, tormenting the hungry bull, seemed no different to me, from the horror inflicters of Noida who went about merrily killing human beings for their own pleasure and gain.
Think, and shudder to anticipate. Have a happy New Year as best as you may!
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