The Cow and the Bull

It was still Wednesday, which meant a few more days for a weekend to arrive. Weekend after a long hectic week at work, meant like a fresh breeze in a hot Indian summer. Radha glanced first at her watch and then at a huge mass of vehicles ahead of her "Will I be able to make it to office on time?". This was the question that crossed her mind as she saw no signs of traffic easing.

She looked around. There were people on bikes, in cars, in buses, in auto-rickshaws, in cabs and in all sort of vehicles found typically on the Indian roads. The vehicles surrounded her from all sides. She could hear engines roaring noisily, burning all the precious fuel and emitting all toxic gases to this environment. With most of the trees cut down for widening roads , she wondered who will clean this polluted air. Most of the people on the roads were youngsters, mostly of her age, rushing to their workplaces. Nobody had time to think about trees, air, pollution or fuel getting over one day. They all had better and more serious things to work on and think about. A guy on a bike lifted his helmet to catch some air. He was sweating in the hot sun. Mercury in Bangalore had been on a rise since past few months now. Radha looked up at the sky and saw no clue of clouds or rains. Monsoon was still far ahead. She had a meeting at 9:30 AM and she wondered how she will manage to reach on time.

Suddenly amongst all the chaos her attention was caught by a cow and a bull, on the footpath under the only banyan tree, left in the vicinity. The cow had pure white complexion with few dark brown patches, whereas the bull was of strong, dark brown, unattractive complexion as compared to the cow. On seeing carefully, the bull was licking the cow gently, starting from her legs, then her body, as if he was trying to express and convey something. The cow stood calmly, not moving much. Then came a man on a bicycle. He got down and started yelling and hitting the bull hard, to make the bull move, so that he could pass. The bull was reluctant to move and tried to scare the man with his horns but all in vain. The bicycle man seemed to be in a hurry to reach his destination, so he continued to shout at the bull, slapping him hard on his back. The reluctant bull finally gave up and moved away slowly. As the bull moved Radha saw the left hind leg of the cow was bleeding. It was a fresh wound. So all this while, the bull was trying to make the cow feel a little better, in the hour of distress and pain.

The traffic eased and started moving. As Radha's rickshaw driver started the engine and pulled the rickshaw ahead to join back the race of madness, her eyes were still fixed on the cow and the bull. But as she moved ahead she was touched by this gesture and so many questions arose in her mind:

• Don't these animals and trees around us, along with innumerable organisms on this earth, have an equal right to live on this earth?
• Why do we humans feel we inherit and own this world and its environment forgetting that we are just a part of it?
• Has man really evolved into a civilized being or is he still the same pre-historic animal?
• Don't these animals teach us an important lesson of compassion and standing by each other's side when things go utterly wrong?
• Aren't these animals more humane or are we humans more animal-like ?