The Sacred Cow

Cows are revered in India.  They are allowed to roam about at their discresion.  No one would dare shoo away or invade their space.  You see them everywhere and in odd places.  If they choose to get upset, you just get out of their way.  I saw them walking on the side walks and down the middle of very crowded traffic lanes.  I saw them lying outside of local businesses and walking in a herd down a lonely residental street.  There might be some farms where cows are kept, but I am talking about city cows.

 

Yes...this is a picture of a cow that I took from inside the barber shop on a busy street!

There are trashpiles on random corners on the city streets.  You will often see cows standing and eating out of the trash piles.  This was a puzzelment to me.  What could possibly be in a human trash pile that a cow would eat?  I had this thought.  Local children go to school and the teacher asks them, "What do cows eat?".  In America, every pre-schooler knows the answer is grass...but not in India!  I'm sure their answer would have to be, "Trash".

I'm pretty sure it is a religious thing, but there are some cows that get dressed up.  They are decorated and dressed and paraded through the streets on a rope.  Chase calls them Indian cows.  There was one such fellow and his cow that would come down our street in the early morning hours.  He was carrying a crazy loud horn with which he would "make music".  We would be awakened by his call many mornings.

Ajay does not like the deep "me-ee-hr" of the cow.  He is not afraid of the cows themselves, just of their sound.  He doesn't even like for his daddy to make the sound.  If you ask him how a cow goes, he gets a fearfull look in his eyes and says, "No".  This is too bad for a child being raised in a part of the world where cows roam (and mehr) freely!!

On occasion you will see something other than a cow - it is rare to see a horse or donkey or goat, but it happens.

Thank you, America, for keeping your cows on the farm and feeding them grass (or whatever)!