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.