Being Moo

I am a cow in a city. Born as a little calf, the world was introduced to me with a thud. There was soft heather below me. As I scrambled to my feed for my first feed I heard the humans cheer. My birth was to be celebrated unlike their girl's.

The loud noises on the road snapped me back to reality, back to India. While I walk the streets with the bell jingling, and my caretaker shouting out that God has arrived, I'm bewildered and amused. I'm bestowed with luxuries, asked for blessings, worshipped and fed heartily by anyone who comes out of a temple.  I'm sacred and protected, I'm honoured and respected..

While I indulge in these luxuries bestowed upon me by this higher species, I notice some males leer at a female. Probably a mating exercise, I mused. I watch as they stare at a woman with the sleeveless kurti, making her shift uncomfortably as she awaits her bus. Wolf whistling, jeering, grabs, rubs, accidental bumps, I see them all as I chew my cud. Poor species. Their defence lies in moving in herds in broad daylight. But I have nothing to worry about. I'm safe, I'm protected unlike them.

In the dead of the night, I felt a stealth reach out to me and take me away to a forlorn place with an overbearing stench. A jolt through my head, my world turning upside down, blood rushing to my head. While I find my body butchered, my spirit stays alive. I know my importance. I know the higher species will react and create a furor. Even the ones who dig their teeth into my flesh will be brought to their knees, pushed behind bars for committing a crime so heinous. My moos will always be heard. My kind will be saved from slaughter and abuse for eternity. Even in death, the law will uphold me, my rights and my existence.

***

Gau rakshak toh bohot hai, naari rakshak aap khud hai.

Always protect yourself.