In the few years I have lived at our village, I have invariably come across many 'non-human' members as well. Cows form a large part of the tribe, apart from cats, dogs, bulls, buffalos, birds of various types, or even donkeys. If you read my blog, you would know many such blog posts about them.
Right in front of our house we have a relative's house who keeps several cows. I can't avoid looking at them. Sometimes I watch these cows who happily live there, just eating, standing, sitting, looking at things, and that is all that they ever do. There is a particular "tall" cow who is known to have a hot temper. At times she gets out of the rope tying her to a peg (khuta) and runs around. She runs raising both front legs at a time. I call her "ghoda gaay" (horse-cow). When she escapes and runs, she throws anyone who comes in her way up in the sky. Hence everyone is scared of her. But the men who look after her know how to control her. Earlier than the current one, there used to be an old man who looked after her. One fine morning while he was milking her, she hit her with her leg; some part of his body broke and then he died in a few days. He was already old but could have lived a few more years if she did not hit him. Life in a village is definitely full of risks.
Over the years, I have developed huge appreciation and respect for these cows because of the way they are. At times when kids are playing or making noise, the cows will just look at them and then go about their own life. Some kids started playing with water making a noise; and the cow just looked at them and then went about eating again. When new small kids are taken to see the cows, the cows would look at their faces as if trying to remember them. The cows never ignore or insult anyone. They are living examples of acceptance, tolerance, and peacefulness.
There is another smaller cow who is always tied below a tree at some distance. Someone said she got some bugs in her skin, that is why she is tied alone and away. She is just a kid. But she does not mind being kept separate from other cows all day long, for months at stretch. Apart from these two cows, other cows live mostly inside their house/shelter, so I do not get to observe them much.
One interesting feature of these cows is that whenever they have a baby calf, they instinctively know what to do. Without any training, education or communication, they take care of the baby, feed it, show affection, help it and cure it by licking it. When it comes to humans, I wonder why we ask for every kind of help and education from others and can't do a thing instinctively by ourselves. And one day, when the calf is taken away from her, the cow just accepts it and goes about living as if nothing happened. The male calves of cows are removed from the place after a while as a rule and female calves are sometimes sold after they grow to an extent. If we apply human sentiments and emotions on their situation, it will look so much troubling. But cows don't mind.
I don't know if I want to be a cow in any next births because I do not want to be dependent on humans for food etc; but I do love them and have huge respect for them. A human can never become even half of a cow in 10 lives.
- Rahul
