In honor of India's favorite animal and a couple of my first experiences in Banaras, I'm going to tell you a couple of stories about cows.
My first tale is actually from our second day in the city. In order to help us get better acquainted with our surroundings, Daniel and Christina gave us a list of items to procure and sent us off on a “scavenger hunt.“ The list was written in Devangari and so after getting more than a little help from our friend Papu, we decided to begin the hunt by going to a nearby bazaar called Godolia. I squeezed into a cycle rickshaw with Katie and Alan and away we went. The ride was only about 10 minutes but at some point, I spaced off and my mind drifted to the subject of cows. I noticed one on the side of the road with particularly menacing horns and imagined what would happen if a cow tried to gore me. Yes, in retrospect, the topic seems unusual and random but at the time, my mind didn’t seem to think anything was wrong with the topic and entertained the notion by picturing and determining the best route to take should I find myself in a showdown with a holy animal. I pondered that the key was probably keeping the horns away from my body but before I could dwell on the matter much further, I was distracted by the many sights, smells, and generally overwhelming sensory experiences that is an Indian bazaar.
Later that day, we were wandering a side street in search of a specific sweet shop and, sure enough, I had my showdown. Now, to be honest, the altercation was not exactly two-sided. The bull was minding its own business, noticed something invading its personal space, swung its head half-heartedly at the intruder, and conveniently began munching on a fresh pile of trash.
I was strolling down the road, saw a large, white, mass equipped with sharp objects come at me, felt my adrenaline skyrocket, grabbed the horns to keep them away from my body and simultaneously leaped about 3 feet away.
Damaris- 1, Cow- 0, obviously.
Now, before you start picturing cows rampaging through the city impaling people left and right, hear out my second story. This one isn't actually mine, but was told to the group by one of our recent lecturers, a professor at Banaras Hindu University. He told us of how in the village where he grew up, there was an incredibly ornery cow who would never let anyone milk her. She was so bad-tempered that, eventually, no one would go near her for fear of being injured. Then, when our speaker was two months old, his mother died. His family and the villagers thought him doomed for death without his mother's nourishment. However, one day, they had brought him outside when, suddenly, that very cow came over and began to feed him. Obviously, they were shocked and even more so when they discovered that, as long as the baby was present, they could even milk the cow themselves. When our speaker was old enough to eat real food though, the cow ceased her cooperativeness just as abruptly and could once again no longer be milked. Our speaker ended the story simply by saying, "And that's it. Without that cow, I would not be here today."
In some ways, I think Banaras is a like a cow. You catch it in the wrong place at the wrong time and it might try to gore you. Or run you over. Poison you with food. Suffocate you with air. Roast you alive or freeze you to death. Then again, thousands of people come here every month to be rejuvenated and revitalized. The contradictory nature of India is probably one of the most talked-about aspects of the country and so it fits that its animal figurehead would follow suit. Sure, a cow tried to gore me. Then again, since the encounter, you will never catch me walking the streets so oblivious of my surroundings. In fact, I‘ve discovered that when you are keeping yourself perpetually aware of any potentially dangerous surroundings, you happen to notice a lot more of the safe stuff too. A cow didn’t wean me from birth, but I think it may have performed just as crucial a favor by not only sparing me from an actual goring by some more zealous animal, but also enriching my experience here on whole.
P.S. If you're looking to learn a little Devangari (Hindi script), check out my sidebar section. One of the most frustrating and fun aspects of reading Devangari is when you come across a word and sound it out while trying to simultaneously translate it, only to discover that the word is in fact English, albeit spelled strangely. I'll show you the script and the direct translation in Roman letters and see for yourself if you can figure out what word is. The section is called ess-cAA-pay in honor of Dory from Finding Nemo ("ess-cAA-pay. hmm, that's funny, it spelled just like escape!) Enjoy.
