Tragedy of a Virgin Cow: A Milk Machine with a Heart

Dhenupur was a small village in the suburbs of Mangalpet. The village was situated amidst hillocks all around with plenty of green pastures. The pastures were merry grounds for social cattle where they meander around a lot licking lovingly, touching friendly and leaning mischievously on each other in a carefree life. They used to live in popular cowpeace by lying down ruminating and staring curiously into space.

There was a cute heifer called Nandini born to native parents. As soon as it got puberty it attained the attention of a young hero-bull of the dynasty called Manohar. The frequency of Nandini's urinations increased. She was becoming hyperactive. Manohar started hanging around there in her vicinity. The next thing was "Love at first sight!"  A strong hormone-driven, subconscious and passionate relationship started blooming out. He was for she! He sensed and confirmed Nandini's oestrus by sampling her urinal pheromones through incisive spurs on the dental pad. Nandini was also excited with increase in her natural oestrogen levels and sexual receptivity. The libidial heat periods of both Manohar and Nandini reached their peak. No sooner had he started pawing the ground and snorting as a signal to mount over her, than a couple of strong men came and forcibly took him away. Hysteric Nandini groaned and mooed a lot at his departing partner, but in vain. Manohar was left into the herd after a few days, not as virile as before, but as a castrated, desexed or neutered steer to the misery of Nandini. He was no more for she!

The days of her loneliness were still going on. One day she felt heavy under her abdomen. That's a baby bump! Udder was also seemed to be becoming more prominent. She hung her head down shyly and shamefully to question herself, "How can this happen to me? I was just betrothed to Manohar. No any sexual relationships with him so far. Now he is sterile also. Is it bestowed due to any miracle?" After a long contemplation she could recollect one incident - One day a man came, bathed her with warm water, raised her tail up, inserted some stick into her and did whatever he wanted (Artificial Insemination).

After a few months she underwent birthing pains to deliver a cute calf. She forgot the pain of her unwanted calving after seeing the vigorous female calf shaking its head and trying to stand up. As soon as it had got the first glimpse of her baby it started licking birth fluids over its body to sense it as her own calf. The black and white crossbreed baby was fortunate to have an affectionate virgin mother, but without father. Possibly the father might be of a Holstein breed living somewhere in Netherlands. It was named Maya by its owner. She was happy to feed her suckling the first milk, colostrum. But the happiness lasted for three days only. The warm, tingling, satisfying feeling of breast feeding to its nursing baby was replaced with irritating and straining teat cups of a milking machine.

The baby was not allowed to suck enough milk by her ownwer as her mother's never-ending worry. Now Nandini was not only a virgin mother but also a vacuum machine to produce milk. One day another shock was given to Nandini. The owner took her Maya away. The disappearance of her baby for several days was the worst possible grief for Nandini. The bereaved mother was left with difficult memories that had been harder to cope with. She used to stare out into space in expectation of her daughter.  Sometimes she used to sit in a corner weeping hours together. She was becoming angry and intolerable to find teat cups stealing her baby's milk.

As the village experienced severe drought the owner sold out Nandini also to a dairy farm in Mangalpet. She was aghast to find her beautiful Maya there tied to an ugly spot with little space to move, turn or get up in the filth of its own dung and urine. The mother wanted to run, lick and nurse her child but she was disabled to do so. Whenever Maya cried out of hunger, it used to increase the stress on the Nandini. She couldn't reach her crying child as she was also tied at a distance. Two things were immensely worrying the mother. One was that her baby couldn't get milk as humans were always there to drink and digest it. Second worry was for the sake of milk humans wouldn't allow her daughter to select and love mate of her choice and innate emotions. But the only thing what the desperate Nandini could do till her last breath was staring into the hopeful eyes of Maya as a prisoner of the factory farm. What the great civilzed  human beings can't understand till know is that the milk machines also have hearts!

Could Animal Activists Rescue the Modern Ape Too?

As a child I was very much fond of watching animals and birds. I was one of the first visitors to any circus that happened to have shows at my place.  I used to  visit  zoos too. It's pity that I wasn't  educated enough or matured enough at that age to perceive the agony of those animals which were entertaining me.  Yes, off course that's true! I couldn't notice that the poor creatures, which were supposed to entertain me, were being chained, shackled,  tethered or cramped in artificial cages. Did they have enough space to roam about?. No, they weren't  getting favourable environment and enough space as much as what they get in their natural habitats. It's being told that these animals were accommodated in spaces that's 18,000 times less than what they could have been in their wilderness! They weren't on their own choice of food, movements and mates too. Anyhow a day of enlightenment came to me. My biology teacher and animal lover narrated the bad fate of those animals. I'm very thankful to him for changing my attitude towards the artificial confinements.

My mind was still reminiscent of bellowing of deer, roaring of big cats, trumpeting of elephants, and chirping of birds.  Thanks to animal activists who have changed the conditions of captive animals.  Now we can watch the animals at their comfort  in spacious enclosures. Safari parks and zoological parks are there to replicate their natural habitats. It's great that some human beings have become humane towards wild animals! In the modern parks the animals ate provided with sufficient space, grass lands and tree canopies to make them healthy and stress free.

One day when I was watching the human like behaviour of chimpanzees,  gorillas and orang utans at a zoo park,  a little girl who was standing beside me,  muttered, "These apes are better than us to play, roam around and enjoy lives in natural surroundings". That's true. When cool breeze, grass lands and tree canopies are must for animals then what about this another biological creature, the man.

Let's hope one day the animal activists would turn their focus from animals to  "the modern ape", whose condition is severe than that of the zoo animals. Are our living factors not akin to those of zoo park animals? Lions and tigers in the circus are driven out from their cages into temporarily raised tunnels, and then into high enclosures to display to the spectators. Can we deny the fact that our living factors are also a little bit similar to theirs? We too are confined to concrete buildings, metallic vehicles and concrete offices or schools. No natural habitats to live. No fresh air to breathe. No cool shade of trees to sit under. At least for a part of the day! Every thing is artificial. There has been incessant efforts to dump a lot of cement, glass, burnt clay, marble tiles, plastic, steel and other metals around us to raise the temperature of development. Don't we need sufficient natural space for gaining natural immunity, health and vigour?  Could we expect changes in the human world  at least for the future generation? But be optimistic!   Animal activists are there. One day they will rescue this modern ape too,  from the perils of the intolerable concrete enclosures!