DESIRE TO LIVE

THE DESIRE TO LIVE:

A ruthless truck driver hit a young bull on its abdomen and hind limb. A crying yell of that calf bull echoed in that new apartment which was in process of storey building. The injured victim dragged itself and fell flat on a sand bed. Other grown up bulls and its mother paid a curtsy visit to their child but could not help him to get up as he had sustained a fracture of the pelvis bone. Two days passed off and everyone around thought that it’s going to die soon. No water and no food made the little bull weak; the abdomen got swollen up due to some internal bleeding. The truck driver repented for the mistake, he was told by others that -- killing a cow or a bull amounts to insurmountable misery and suffering and there is no escape from it unless someone follow certain rituals as per Hindu sastra. So the driver shaved off his hair and started taking care of the injured bull but there was no improvement. The injured fellow lied down without food and water. The country dogs started cleaning the ticks from the black coat of the bull. Slowly the beautiful velvety black coat became a dull one with passing days resembling a black withered umbrella cloth.

After a week the driver was sacked from his job, as after that accident fresh problems started coming up about the authenticity of the land where the building was coming up in haste. Some Samaritan fed the injured bull with cabbage leaves, potato and skin of jackfruits but was on that sand bed under the sun and open sky. His mother started to give him company by sleeping near her son at night.

As the rains came four people with the help of a samiyana lifted the young bull and shifted it in to that building which was under construction so that it gets protection from sun and rain. This was done with a selfish motive as a marriage function was coming up nearby house. Left to its fate the mother left her bullson who started making feeble attempts to stand up but the broken bone prevented him to stand even for a few minutes. After a month when everyone around were thinking of where to bury the bull were surprised one morning to watch a limping fellow all skeleton and bruised  abdomen skin  grazing grass.

                     Neither orthopedic surgery nor abdominal surgery was performed on this poor animal but only the affections of the country dogs that used to give him company at night and his mother’s sympathy made his fate take a U turn in life. Someone informed that the truck driver died after a fatal accident and the house builder’s son got divorced after the recent episode. The bull has survived the insult of the truck and is able to walk with a dragging left hind leg, appears to have put on some weight and the gloss on her black skin is slowly returning to its normal texture.  The controversial apartment has become a resting house for the stray dogs, our young bull son and few cows during rains and nights. Some say nature has its own ways and means of life and the word impossible is not in its dictionary.

Sanjoy Kumar Satpathy

Written on Janmastami day-2013