STONE DEITIES

Clara closes her eyes in sheer disgust. Yet she cannot remove from her mind the horrible scene she had just witnessed. The sound of the merciless beating of the cow and its pitiable wail "Mmmaa ..... Mmmaa.........." continues to ring in her ears. After closing the gate the owner of the house is chasing and beating the cow with mad rage. "Had he closed the gate before the cow strayed in ..... How is the animal to know that it is somebody's house and that it is not allowed to enter and graze in the garden? How can we expect the animal to know when the all knowing man is not conscious of his own negligence"........

She had come to India from America with great expectations. Vasaan-abbreviation for Srinivasan to suit the American environment - had told her so many nice things about India and kindled her curiosity. Vasaan was a professor in the UCLA University of California in Los Angeles. He was the bridge partner of her mother. In his spare time he was teaching Clara Tamil. Along with that he was giving her interesting sidelights of life in India.

One day she saw a news item in the local paper about the agitation in India against cow slaughter. Clara's mother asked "If the cows are not slaughtered will they not multiply and the cattle population become uncontrollable? When there is not enough food in India for the human population how will they feed millions of animals?"

Srinivasan had a hearty laugh at this observation and proudly explained to her how the cow is worshipped in India. "It is believed that Lakshmi, goddess of wealth, resides in the tail of the cow. On Fridays our women offer prayers applying auspicious turmeric and vermilion on the forehead of the cow the 'Gomata'. One must see 'Mattu Pongal', a day dedicated to the cattle during the harvest festival. They will paint the horns of the animals with bright colours, adorn them with garlands and take them out in procession. Nandi the Bull is famous as the vehicle of Lord Shiva."

"Mom...... I must go to India. I must see the procession of decorated cattle" said Clara with eagerness writ large on her face. Enthused by this Vasaan proceeded further.

He explained in detail about the worship of monkey God Hanuman, how the Lion is the vehicle of Durga and how even the poisonous snake is formally worshipped. He told them that they should understand the philosophy behind this veneration and worship of animals.

"This is an expression of the realisation that all creations of God are entitled to our respect."

"We can take the cow as representing all the animals. In many households even if the cow becomes old and stops yielding milk they will not sell it to the butcher. Inspite of their limited means they will take care of it till the end."

Clara had been wonderstruck by this. "Wow! What a great faith and what a great culture!".

"You remember the other day we saw on our TV how the cattle owners resorted to merciless. shooting down of helpless calves to register their protest against the price hike in cattle feed. See the difference. I must go to India immediately....."

Clara's mother patted her on her back acknowledging her childlike innocence and her spontaneous reaction.

Vasaan's descriptions and philosophical explanations further kindled her desire to see for hers'elf the glorious land of her dreams. Soon an opportunity came her way. She got a scholarship from her University to go to a country of her choice and spend a year there to study its culture. Unmindful of her mother's hesitation she insisted on having her own way and landed in India. Srinivasan helped her to get a place for stay in Madurai. When she arrived it was the time of Pongal. She didn't realise she had already spent four days in India. She had seen to her heart's content the various festivities like the Mattu Pongal, Gopuia, Jallikattu, etc. She was not able to believe her eyes when she saw everywhere huge quantities of freshly harvested paddy, sugarcane, etc. and the atmosphere of plenty with people spending lavishly to celebrate the occasion with great enthusiasm and devotion. She wondered how she had heard India being described as a poor country. But gradually she began to realise the vast chasm between her dreams and expectations and the actual reality. She was in for shock and disillusionment.

The first shock. It happened on her return from a visit to Azhagar hill. Huge cattle herds were returning to the city. To prevent the rowdy animals from breaking away from the herd, they had tied one end of a rope to the front leg and the other end to the neck of the animal, with the result that the animal could barely limp forward bending everytime to manoeuvre the movement.

Clara was shocked beyond words. What cruelty she thought. Thereafter whenever she went out, she carried a small pen knife with her. If she saw any cow or bull or donkey on the road with its leg tied like this she used to cut the rope with the knife. Immediately the animal would spring and run away with freedom restored. The news of a white girl squatting on the road and freeing animals spread like wild fire. One owner even picked up a quarrel with her. She tried to explain to him with her limited Tamil vocabulary but became the laughing stock of the crowd which had gathered there in no time.

After that Clara decided to keep her ears and eyes open and observe everything closely. There was no dearth of incidents and practices which hurt her deeply.

On the one side she saw people going round the cow, touching its tail and seeking its blessings. She also saw how people were inducing the cow to yield milk by tying a toy calf made of stuffed hay near it creating an illusion that it was its real calf. Bullocks groaning under the weight of the heavily loaded carts and getting beaten were a common sight.
She just could not understand this blatant contradiction. She wondered what was wrong with this country. She could not find any explanation.

Clara started feeling that she was out of place in this strange environment. She had come with the dream of seeing the very essence of all that is good. But what she was seeing was a sorry mess. She felt that instead of torturing the animals and reducing them to skin and bone, perhaps it was better to kill them as was shown on the American Tv. "Whom can I share this feeling with...." .

"Well... I need not have got this one year scholarship. I have hardly finished three months and so many more months still remain" ruminates Clara. She feels like having a breath of fresh air. She locks up her place and leaves.

It was a street abutting the tank. There was an open ground which had been enclosed with a makeshift fence. There was a row of ten or fifteen bullocks inside. Suddenly there was a wailing cry "Mmmaa..... Mmmaa.......". She stopped to see what was happening. They had branded one animal with red hot iron. It had been tied firmly so that it could not move this way or that way and had became restive. It wailed mournfully. Clara could not stand this wanton torture. Her blood boiled. "Why were they torturing this mute creature?"

She pushes the fencing aside and runs inside the enclosure.

"Hey you! Stop it". The man who was heating the rod for branding the next animal and four or five others who were present looked at her. One of them recognises her.

"Oh! This wretched woman has come here also. This one who frees animals by cutting the rope with a knife. Cattle owners are all fed up with such a great nuisance......."

"Doesn't she know that these are age old practices in our village" asks the owner.

"Whether she knows or not we do not know. Speaking in her broken Tamil she makes a nuisance of herself and won't give up easily too..... Just wait. We are going to have plenty offun now......."

"Is it so...... then shall we brand her also!" sarcastically asks the owner throwing a contemptuous look at Clara.
There is a burst of laughter.

This insulting behaviour provokes Clara. 'Besides being unmindful of the pain suffered by these mute creatures these people are sarcastictoo...... Are they so completely bereft offeelings?.....'

The next moment....... it happened all of a sudden.

Clara abruptly snatched the red hot iron from the burning charcoal and without realising what she was doing she puts it on the owner himself. "You should atleast realise what the animals would have felt.... How is it?......" There was fury in her eyes.

The stunned silence is broken by the screams of the branded man. The onlookers recover quickly and catch hold of Clara. A crowd collects from nowhere.

"What happened?...... What happened?"

"Beat up that woman".

"Why do such creatures come to India and poke into our affairs?"

Above all this din and noise Clara's frenzied voice can be heard.

"Cow is sacred. It is to be worshipped.... All this is a big lie and a fraud. All your deities are mere stone. You will worship the animal only if it is made of a stone. Nandi! Not when it is alive in flesh and blood...."

Clara shouts like a mad woman. Not one soul in the crowd could understand her feelings and the background for this frenzy!

This story by Kamala Varadan in Tamil won an Award in a Short Story Competition conducted by Ananda Vikatan