Hills That We Climbed: March 2024

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Memories: Talking to a Baby Goat

During my village-stay, I noticed the bonding between small kids and small goats. Poor families in the village raise goats and often their small children take these baby goats as their playmates. There is an open land near our house which we have left just like that, and villagers bring their goats to graze its grass. Often small kids of age 4-5 accompany their goats and many times they are seen "talking" to their goats! Once I saw a small baby boy who had come to take his goat back to his home, talking to his goat saying, "ghare chala". All this was in the back of my mind since I just observe and do not usually interfere in things people do.

Recently, one day I heard sound of a goat which appeared like sound of a crying child. I went out of the house to check what was happening and found that there was a baby goat which had fallen legs up and it was crying in a human-like sound! There were other goats nearby but they were obviously not helping. Hence I went near the baby goat and found that the rope with which it was tied to ground, had got entangled in a bush and hence the goat was not able to move. Entangled in the rope, it had fallen in a manner where its head was touching the ground and its four legs were up towards the sky! I bent down and started the arduous task of untangling the rope.

The rope had got circled around the goat's legs too and hence I had to touch its leg to free it from the rope. I noticed that its leg was not in two piece like human leg, but it had many joints, like it had many knees; and hence it was very flexible. Usually if people tried to get near to the goat, they would run away, but at that time since I was helping the goat, it was looking at me but it was still not reacting as if it understood that I was trying to help it. The rope had entangled a lot and when I started taking long time to free it, the goat once tried to shrug it off, which was counterproductive. At that point, in order to calm down the goat, I spoke to it, asking it to remain calm while I was helping it. I noticed that when I spoke to the goat, the goat immediately became calm, perhaps understanding that I was talking to it. I was touched by this gesture. In a few minutes, the goat was freed from the rope, but it was still lying on the ground and hence I picked it up, holding its belly with both my hands and left it standing on its four feet. I noticed the goat's hairy skin which was soft and fluffy.

Once I kept the little goat on its four legs, it immediately started grazing grass, as if nothing had happened! I was a bit shocked, but I understood. I checked out the bush in which the rope had entangled, and it was really rubber like unbreakable one, and there was high chance for rope to get entangled with it again, hence I pulled it out of the ground with roots and threw it far away. The baby goat won't face this ordeal again.

After returning to home and before going to wash my hands, I looked at the goat and it was still calmly eating the grass "as if nothing had happened". I don't know from where the baby goat got that resilient attitude. Anyways, I took a deep breath and moved on too.

- Rahul