An arthritic bullied by a cow

The cow saw red

This incident happened in Madras in the early years after I had contracted rheumatoid arthritis. By that time the arthritis had already affected my right knee to the point that I was much less slower and when I moved around it was with a noticeable limp.

Madras was a noisy and chaotic city then just as it is today. Honking cars buses and three wheelers vie with pedestrians for space on the roads of Madras. To add on to the already chaotic situatiion then were cows. Although largely banished from the streets of Madras today cows then were a common sight as the locals had resisted attempts to relocate them at the outskirts of the city arguing that they contributed much of the fresh milk to the city's populace. These cows were generally docile except when they bear calfs after which they can be quite aggressive.

One day, while returning from lunch with some friends we walked into a lane intending to proceed to my friend's house which was nearby, a cow some thirty meters away, pulled herself loose from the rope tethered to a lamp post and trotted towards my direction. On seeing this the owner of the cow quickly grabbed at the loosen end of the rope to restrain the cow. A tug a war between cow and man ensued with the cow of course winning. The poor owner was being dragged along. If the cow was not heading for my direction, I would had found the whole situation amusing.

The cow pulled the man along and came for me but because of the bad knee I could not move away quickly enough. Luckily, that because of the owner tugging at the other end of the rope, the cow could only manage a head butt on my upper arm before it was shouted and shooed off by my friends and some other passer-bys. Although it was painful no real damage was done as it was the head of the cow and not her horns that had hit me. It seemed what had irked the calfing cow was my bright red checkered shirt I had on that day.

The cow seemingly satisfied with her head butt, allowed herself to be led away docilely. It was as if she was trying to make her point of "don't you dare come anywhere near me or my calf".

"Point understood Mrs. Cow" and in future also no more putting on brightly red colored shirts in Madras.