3.KAALI AND SHANKU

My father was so aghast at the fate of Blacky, that soon after he brought home another calf. She was also black but with a brownish tinge. She was, but a naughty calf and wouldn’t allow people to pet her. She would shake her horns threateningly and so we named her ‘ Kaali’ – the angry one. Kaali was always a bit restless, trying to break free of the ropes she was tied to, which she succeeded many a times and wrecked havoc in the neighbourhood. On many days, after coming back from school, I would be told to run on some direction looking for her, while my parents will be running in other directions. Once while my father was trying to untie her ropes from the pole, she restlessly shook her head near his face, scooping one of his eyeballs out. He had to be rushed to hospital and had stitches to keep it in. Thankfully, there was no damage to his vision. But his love for the cow persisted. In due time, she gave birth to a bull calf. We named him Shanku. That’s was when my mother’s misery began. There was no one available in the village to milk the cow. My mother was a full time working woman, and mind you, a college professor. Since there was no other option, the job of milking the cow fell upon her shoulders. Kaali was a very caring mother too who wished that her entire milk goes to her child. So every milking session was a tug – of – war between my mother and the cow mother. Finally  Shanku became a very fat and lazy bull, whose strength surpassed ours so much that we were not able to control him with ropes anymore. So we had to bid adieu to the duo, when my father found a seller who agreed to take both the son and mother together.