my buffaloes

i went to  our farm in pampakuda last sunday to have a look
at the four buffaloes we keep there. we brought them from pollachi
when they were about two months old. now they have grown into
young bulls. i like seeing them.

our farm in pampakuda is a small one with about half an acre of
grazing land. we have some coconut trees and a few nutmeg trees
in the remaining one acre stretch. the point is that the buffaloes have
almost nothing to eat.

before the buffalo calves came in , our farm was filled with so much
grass and shrubs that there was no space to set foot. there were
'thottavadi' with their small thorns and 'choriyennan', leaves of which
made our skin swell , too in the half acre stretch . we believed earnestly
that this is forest material where bisons  could flourish.

now that the calves started grazing , there is not a blade of grass in the
whole farm. we bought dried hay and rice bran to keep the calves alive.
the point is that the buffaloe project failed. well almost.

we were thinking of making quick money by selling the buffaloes after
a few months by which time , we thought, they would grow into massive
animals fetching us a good price in the butcher's market.  oh yes we are
going to sell them for meat in a few months. but the point is that we may
not recover our cost.

we had calculated that buffaloes would eat the wild grass , drink the water
in the pond and grow and grow giving us tons of dung and  meat. return  on the capital which is just for buying the calves and bringing them to the farm
would be decent by any standards. this is the scheme that failed .
economically.

but the calves are growing. we take them occasionally to the near by paddy field
which lies vacant at this time of the year. real wild grass grows in these wet lands.
it is this grass our buffaloes ate and stayed alive . not the limited amount of
hay and rice bran that we provided. crux of the matter is that buffaloes need
wet land grass to survive. those planning buffalo rearing please note.

but the point in writing this post is that one of  our buffaloes, the oldest one,
looked at me with a strange expression. it raised its head and stared at me.
and stayed that way for a long time. the gaze disturbed  me .

i could not sleep properly. that gaze came back to me in my sleep. i woke up
many times . i could not take the thought out of my mind. this is probably the
problem with every one. it is almost  impossible to remove a thought once
it enters our  mind. delete function is disabled in our mind computer.

i thought my buffalo friend saw thru my design. he probably read my thought
and realised that i am planning to send him to the butcher a few days from now.
that i will not allow him to grow  and become an adult. i will not give him time to
mate or pass  on his genes to the next generation. i will allow him no chance to
live his life. and that he can do nothing.

well . before i could catch some sleep in the wee hours last night i too realised
that i too can do nothing . but it is consolation enough that i dont get to stare at
he  who decides my fate . he doesnt visit me in the farm that often.

if ever i  go to meet my buffalo friend again i will post again. 

gender atrocities

1. give our girls education. make it compulsory.
    implement the policy effectively.  best remedy
    against exploitation is education.
2. give our women right to property. it is already
    there in some communities . make it mandatory.
    across all religions, communities and faiths.
3. give our women income. if employment is not
    feasible give them allowance. if women are
    empowered to stand on their legs , they can fight
    exploitation better.
4. keep any one who mistreats women outside.
   apply social boycott .

these are a few of the things we have to do
if our women are to have decent life.

another excess on the internet

i am posting after a long time.
not that there are no controversies around.
in fact there were too many . and too hot.
like the police action in the movie upload case.
police have registered case against fifteen 
persons for uploading a recently released
malayalam movie on the net. so far so good. 
they had no right to steal ( i mean it ) the movie.

but see the second part. case is  also registered
against a thousand more persons. for viewing the
movie on the net.

this is  something like going to jail for looking
at a daring poster on the road. or a baring
ad in your daily newspaper. internet too is 
public space.

if you think i am exaggerating recall the
incident a few months back. a student was
arrested and put behind bars for watching
porno. true  he was underaged. but see what
we have done to the kid.
and where he can go now. back to school
and friends ? or to the underworld or  
take the exit route ?

crux of the matter is that it is high time we
reviewed our rules. these rules did serve a
purpose when they were framed but may
not apply in the present context. they
need to be reviewed however sacrosanct
they appear.

and in the meantime let us go slow on their
implementaion. let us not unplug thousands
of young lives. let us not nip bright blossoms
in the bud. all on the strength of provisions in
the statute book.

overenthusiasm is as bad as or worse than
 lethargy. especially when it comes from law
 enforcing agencies.

 

oxygen .. the great enemy within ?

read the article by my young friend in high school
and debate if your brain is adequately oxygenated
and if u r ready to run the risk of getting oxidated

     http://oxygenpoison.blogspot.in

population control or redistribution ?

i have a small garden on the roof.

ladys fingers, tomatoes and some chillies.
if u think i get vegetables from the garden
u r mistaken. i get only a strange satisfaction.
when i see the sprouts and the leaves and the
occasional flowers. and the rare rare fruits.
and the squirrels who feed on them.

there are a few love birds too in my garden.
i started with a pair in one cage . now there
are ten in two cages. eight in the old cage
and two in the new one. they chirp thru out
the night . they do it louder in the mornings
when i walk up to them for a closer look.


i told my colleagues about the birds. to boost
my image. as a bird watcher too. but
there were experts in the group. with long
experience. they told me that the cage is
overcrowded. eight is too many to live in
a small cage.


they lectured to me about the strain on the
resources. they asked me to take population
control measures at the earliest .


they asked me to enforce production discipline.
no more than one offspring per pair. they suggested
disincentives for the indiscipined . keep them
away from govt jobs. run awareness programs.
make it unfashionable to have more kids.
and many more.


but i did nothing of the sort. i just transferred
a pair of my beloved birds to the new cage. and
i still wonder why we think only about control of
population and not about relocating them .


more of it u like the idea and grade it debatable.

forget and forgive

forget and forgive is the advice we hear very often. it is the panacea for ending all disputes , stopping all quarrels and removing all illwill. but how do we do that ?  do we have the ability to forget ? i am not aware of any one who has the ability to forget voluntarily. the more one tries to forget something the more it is remembered. the very efforts aimed at forgetting brings it to the fore and in fact reinforces its memory. so forget the desire to forget. instead remember to forgive which should still work

railways and social service

strange are the ways our railways react. if  an employee
torments a lady passenger he gets reinstated in two days .
ultimately casting aspersions on the lady who dared to
complain.

on the other extreme the railways have now decided to
perfect its customer service by keeping  anyone with  a bad
breath  away from its trains. passengers and their colleagues
 will have to pass a breath analyser test if they are to board
a train or enter the platform. if any trace of  alcohol is
detected he will be  fined and jailed.

an attempt to offer social service by freeing our  society
of  the alcohol evil .

railways can go a step further and think of  stipulating a good
conduct certificate as a pre requisite for buying a ticket. which
would be hailed as another social service initiative . close on  the
heels of the drive against liqour.