The Cow

The Naidu family had been facing a lot of difficulties for a long time in their small village, Anaivari, to procure milk and its by-products, because it was a very small village and sparsely populated.

People of his village, who were mostly agricultural laborers, had no time to have a cow and to maintain it. Even one or two families who had milch cows had not had any surplus milk to offer. But Naidu was always a health-conscious person and he was very particular that every member of his small family, which consisted of himself and two other members, his wife and his only son, should make it a habit of consuming milk and its by-products. Considering his age of 60+, Naidu thought it was a must for him.

Therefore, after a week long consultation with his wife and his school-going son Guru, Naidu had finally decided to purchase a new cow and calf at “Madapattu Santhai” which was a market place that assembled every Sunday. Naidu spent the whole day in checking a number of cows available in the market, for their age, through a special process called ‘numbering the teeth’ of the cow proposed to be purchased and even milked one or two cows to ascertain the veracity of the owners statement, whether their cow would yield ten liters of milk per day. To Purchase a cow, even if all other aspects as to the cow were found ok and satisfactory, was not an easy task. A proposed purchaser had to necessarily engage a broker and the broker would not have any open bargaining with the proposed seller of a cow. The broker would use a towel for concealing the bargain that would go on beneath the towel and the exchange of information was only through the fingers of the seller and the broker.

Crossing over all the above mentioned difficulties, Naidu managed to purchase a cow and a calf for a sum of Rs 4,500/- and how the bargain was arrived at,was known to the broker only. When the cow and the calf were brought to home, Naidu and his family members felt very happy.

Apart from attending his routine duties of agriculture, Naidu devoted most of his time only to the newly purchased cow. He milked the cow, bathed them, cleaned the cow dung and he was very much involved in them and had his own names for them, Lakshmi for the Cow and “Baby Lakshmi’ for the calf. Whenever he prepared a mixture of rice brawn and groundnut, gingelly and coconut oil cakes, Naidu fed them himself. It was even more astonishing, whenever Naidu called them by their name as Lakshmi and Baby Lakshmi, they rushed to his call within seconds .Within a few weeks Naidu became more attached to the cow and the calf. He even massaged both the cow and the calf whenever he found time. Above all Naidu also took both his cow and the calf to the green pastures for their rearing. It should be noted that it was not customary for persons like Naidu to attend to a cow or milk it or rear it. But Naidu did them out of his passion for Lakshmi and Baby Lakshmi.

A few years rolled by. Now Naidu was nearing 70 years old. Lakshmi stopped yielding milk. Baby Lakshmi had grown up and gave birth to a calf. But Naidu could not look after all of them. Hence, he sold Baby Lakshmi after a few months. Lakshmi alone was left. But, it had developed a strange habit. It would not allow anybody else even to go nearby her. It would also not eat anything if Naidu did not feed her. Realising Lakshmi’s strange habit, Naidu, who was now 73 years old, had to strain much to look after her.

After a few months, suffering from senility, Naidu fell ill and became bed-ridden. Lakshmi, because of her strange habit, had no takers or attenders and she had starved many a days.

Ten days passed by. Naidu became seriously ill. Number of relatives converged at his house to have a last look at him. Whether Lakshmi knew about it or not, it was not known. But she had been shedding tears unstoppable. At about six o’clock in the evening, Naidu died. Immediately there was a lot of commotion in the house. Peoples, from his village and even from the nearby villages, thronged in long queue to have a last look at Naidu.

The next day evening at about six o’ clock , Naidu’s cremation was performed by his son. When all the peoples returned home from the cremation ground, they found a foul smell was coming from the garden, where Lakshmi had been tied..It was found that Lakshmi had also died , the minute she had heard the commotion from the Naidu’s house.

The next day morning a butcher came to Naidu’s house to take away deceased Lakshmi.

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