It certainly was love at first sight. Pa had requested me to help my younger brother, S out with his dairy farm and I wondered what I could do to turn it around. I was an engineer with a management degree to boot and how could I double up as a vet, or so went my thoughts. Over last night’s dinner the proposition had come out from left center so to say; my niece was in my lap and I was feeding her. I was unmarried and she was the only baby I had dared to lift and she took to me for my brother who never bothered to do the baby talk with her. I grunted my assent and so there we were, me riding pillion on my brother’s motorcycle.
As we rode through the dusty lanes of the village, the stink or rather the smells of a village assaulted my senses. Wondering if I had got the short end of a deal, I dismounted from the motorcycle as it puttered itself shut. The farm was spread over 4 acres and had a certain history, though modern, to it. There was Vellaisami, aka, White God who was the general handy man for the upkeep and just the 4 buffaloes with their calves. The stench of bull shit was overpowering , but as I made my way to where the grass was being grown the stench vanished and I could get some lung fills, much to my relief. It was then that all hell broke loose.My brother and his partner were running for life all the while shouting for me to take cover behind the parapet of a well. Puzzled, I turned around to find a buffalo charging at me and the sight was beautiful. Head bowed down and speeding like a train out of control, she was on a straight track to where I was. A good 25 metres separated us, I could have taken cover, but the sight of this short animal charging at me was both awesomely terrifying and lovely to watch. She thought I would sweat fear bullets, I was calm. I was upwind and she could smell me. Coming close to me she slackened, this 800 kilo mass of enraged beautiful black package that was a milch animal. Finally, she skidded to a stop and gently pushed me with her forehead, I took a step back. She grunted.
I just stood still. And so did time.
She grunted again and this time White God and the others had lassoed her; something I dint like. I had met arrogant clefted bipeds before and had subdued them. Today, I thought I had met a 4 legged one. Voicing my dissent, I asked them to free her, walked to her side and put my arm around her neck; around the thick corded muscles that if powered by a brain could bring a building down. I just said in Tamil to her, “ Lets go to your place in the stall”
I didn’t know her place but she took me to her place and she stood docilely, with an expectant look for me to tie her up. I didn’t know the knots and White God walked up and tied her up. She licked my forearm and before long I was feeding her hay and some freshly cut grass. It was time for the mid-day milking and the milkers had come and watched the whole thing from a distance. I just sat at a distance, with her exchanging glances at me, as if she was shy to make the first approach, like a girl out on her first date. It was then that I renamed her Azhagi, the beautiful girl. I rolled it around my tongue and whispered to her gently. She heard me, did my Azhagi. And pawed at the soil, waiting for the milking to get over. The practice was to feed them after the milking.
I strolled across where the feed was being mixed. 2 kilos of ground cumbu, 2kilos of wheat flour and 2 kilos of maize all with 48 litres of water constantly stirred by hand, so that it could be slurped in. It was then that I did the unthinkable. I gently tapped White God away and put my hand in and began stirring. At first she pretended not to notice. Then Azhagi snorted and people around me scampered for cover. But I continued stirring, the water being hand-pumped 8 liters at a time. After the feeding was over, she looked up and stared straight at my eye, unblinking for an eternity. It was then that I knew.
Azhagi had met her match after a lifetime of search.
But then, I am getting a little ahead in my story. The town was called Kumbakonam aka slanted tower and the village where the farm was, located by the banks of the Arasal aaru aka King’s river, called Sivapuram. I used to frequent the town’s market and buy vegetables in wholesale and transport them to the City. This went on for quite sometime when the proposal to run this dairy farm came up. I was in two minds. I had a flourishing business and had salted away some money and was thinking of expanding it to a 2-man operation, the journeys of 350 kms every night were beginning to take a toll.
Then, I met Azhagi and decided to help my brother out. As soon as the feeding was over and I led her to her stall, I heard the sound of hooves. Looking up I saw a herd walking in, all freshly bathed and scrubbed in the river, and taking their places in their stalls. I stopped counting after 10 and got up from scratching the back of Azhagi’s ears, a sure trick to woo these ladies. I heard a grunt of disapproval, ignored, and went strolling to inspect what I had inherited. I heard a snort, again ignored, and went my way counting the heads of my brand new bunch of 4-legged girls. In total, I counted 46 heads, and 19 were milch animals, the rest being calves in various stages of growth. I went around touching a few here, scratching the back of the ears of a few and grunting like them.
The enormity of what I had assented to, hit me from the back. Azhagi had torn herself free and pushed me to the ground and held me there, hooves planted on either side of my face, my nose flattened to the ground. I could vaguely hear in the distance, White God, screaming that no one was supposed to show any affection to the other buffalos, in the presence of Azhagi. Boy!! Talk of being jealous. Now, I understood why my girl friends left me in a few months, they needed to be pampered constantly. I guess girls of all types are just the same. Hmmm. I literally had to talk my way out from between her forelegs and everyone clapped.
I had learnt my first lesson of The Pullu Pannai.
The rest of the day went by in a blur, with the other milch animals being milked and fed and it was time to return and cement the deal with my Pa. On the way back home, I asked my brother to stop at the local hooch joint and got sloshed to celebrate my falling head over heels in love and my escape from a gory death by a jealous girl, albeit a 4-legged one at that.
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