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!

One More Independence Day, Please!

Swaraj was tenth passed but doing farming along with her wife Asha. He had a daughter named Bhavishya. He had some land sufficient enough to house a small mud shack and open space bordered by a number of trees like a curry-leaf tree, a drumstick tree, a guava tree, a jamun tree, a mango tree, a tamarind tree, a small patch of plantains and a plot for kitchen garden. The tree cover was a blessing not only for fowls, a pair of goats and a cow but also for his only girl-child to play and swing under. It was a self-sustainable home  with a plenty of paddy, millets, pulses, milk, eggs, chicken, fresh fruits and vegetables.  But no doubt a poor underdeveloped family.

One summer his brother Sevak came to the village  along with his family as usual. But this time with a great offer for Swaraj! Sevak said, "How long you live this poor life?" Swaraj couldn't understand. He continued,  "Your child is growing up, at least for her sake you come to my place, I'll try for you a job in my company." Asha who's listening from behind prompted Swaraj to accept the offer. The undestandable husband said, "OK!" Swaraj had given a serious thought to the idea and finally disposed off all of his live-belongings to the other villagers within a weak or two.

After receiving a message from his brother, he left for the city along with his family. As he's tenth passed he's appointed as a supervisor for the ongoing construction works. Bhavishya was also joined in a private school nearby. The husband was doing a job in a company,  the daughter was studying in a private school and Asha herself was busy in getting audio-visual lessons on TV concerning the modern city life through serials with intermittent  ads on sophisticated gadgets to make the life practical. At last it's turned into a small happy family. No worries and no tensions!

One day Bhavishya came home from school complaining that she's developing pain in her tummy. Within a few minutes she started vomiting. She's taken to a hospital. Many tests were conducted. No traces of any infection. Later advised to take to a nutritionist. The nutritionist revealed that the problem was due to adulterated milk. This might lead to kidney problems also. One day she came home complaining persistent headache. There's no any serious probem, only thing was that she'd to use spectacles. She's then a complete student with a huge backpack of books and cute looking spects. Both Mom and Dad were happy as their girl was looking smart and getting modern schooling!

One evening Swaraj came home from work coughing, wheezing and feeling breathlessness and tightnessness in his chest. Asha forced him to visit a hospital. Doctors had conducted spirometry test and told that he's  developing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) due to the continuous inhalation of pollutants. They suggested him to avoid dust and fumes  and to eat smaller but more frequent meals, to take rest before eating and to take nutritional supplements. After branchodilation he returned  home with a long list of medicines and a modern inhaler. He became a complete man with a cellophane in one hand and an inhaler in the other!

After a few years of the adapted city life the mistress of the family started experiencing nervousness, sweating, difficulty in sleeping and distinct facial flushing. Visited a woman specialist. BP was checked.  It's  140/90. Madam advised her to visit after three days. She went as per the schedule. High reading on sphygmomanometer! No doubt.  She'd developed hypertension. Then she got a long list of prescription along with a number of instructions - "Don't sit in front of TV for hours together. " "Don't eat too much salt." "Take more fruits and raw vegetables." "Reduce body weight." "Go for walk." And so on. But she's looking heavily smart!

One day power was off. Mistakenly Asha got some time to think about her family and home. It's a complte home with all modern facilities like a TV set, gas connection, a mixer, a fridge, a washing machine, a couple of ceiling fans and sufficient furniture contrasted to that of the past rustic life. Though they couldn't get unadulterated milk and uncontaminated fresh fruits and vegetables to keep health they'd get a plenty of pills and syrups to survive from not only infectious but also degenerative diseases. They're living in the area dotted fully with concrete towers encircled by drainages and fast running  bykes and cars over.  Though they couldn't listen birds' songs and get cool breeze  there, they could keep their ears busy deafening to hustling and bustling noise of vehicles and sense of hot smoky winds non-stop. But one thing's certain that people used to consider them as "civilized" and "developed".

Meanwhile the power came back followed by daughter  and husband in the evening. She found her husband seemed to be a little disturbed. Face was gloomy and greasy with a trickle of sweat. She softly enquired,  "Why're you so dull. What do you want, my dear?" He gently replied, "Independence Day!" "What ......?"  "Yeah!  I need independence from the dusty and smoky atmosphere, from the adulterated food and diseases and from the ever escalating cost of living, medical bills, debts and tensions." He continued, "I want the past glorious life of my village where I was the boss of my own small estate, full of clean air, water, food, peace and happiness!"