Punyakoti emba govu ... An original story

This is not an original post by me,  my husband came up with this story and I have narrated it in a few words.. With all the bills being passed for cow slaughter et al , I thought it is time to remember the most pious and honest cow Punyakoti and all other cows who are no less innocent and virtuous as her....

Once there lived a butcher and his wife in a small village. The butcher was earning enough to lead a comfortable life. He was unhappy though, since even after 8 years of marriage, he did not have an offspring.

He went to churches,mosques and temples to pray to God, and begged for a child. He promised the Lord that he will maintain humanity and will not hurt any innocent if he begets a child.

God answered his prayers...the Butcher and his wife were blessed with a beautiful baby Boy. But due to some complications,the  Butcher's wife was unable to breastfeed. That kept the butcher worried for his son's health and with no other option he went and purchased a milking Cow with a Calf. 

The Cow, with all it's heart produced more and more milk to feed both the young boy and it's calf to their full. She never seemed to differentiate between the human's child and her own child and showered the babies with love and kindness. Thus the Butcher's Son was saved by the Cow. The Boy grew up along with the cow & her calf and a strong bond was formed between them.

One day when the boy went out to play,the butcher, true to his profession and human greed ,thought that the cow is giving milk to his son...there will be no harm if he killed the calf, it is of no other use to him any way. Also, that would mean his son would get even more milk or he could sell the excess milk for money! With this evil thought, the Butcher took the Calf to his shop and slaughtered it. All night the boy cried loud along with the Cow, and promised the Cow that he will protect her and take care of her always. The Cow selflessly continued giving milk, and treated the boy as her own child. the Cow's love towards the boy increased day by day, she couldn't even eat without him, so was the boy's affection towards this mother who fed him.

A few months passed and the boy needed less milk as he was eating other food too. The cow also started to reduce the milk produce. This got the greedy butcher thinking again.One day when the Boy when to school, he took the Cow to his shop.When the Boy came home running and could not find his Cow around, he ran towards his Mother crying, and inquired her about the Cow. 

The Butcher's wife with painful eyes said, Son your Father has taken your Cow to his Shop. He wants to slaughter and sell it. Hearing this, the boy screamed and instantly ran towards his fathers shop, begging him to stop slaying the cow..but the Butcher mercilessly slaughtered it and left it to die.

The boy saw this gruesome scene and without seeing crossed the road to reach the dying cow...when a speeding bus hit him and he died on the spot. 

Even in death, the boy and the cow were inseparable...

People took the Boy's dead body to the butcher's shop, he burst into tears, and for the first time, his heart cried after seeing blood and he realized the value of a life.

He could not understand what wrong he did to deserve this, he even cursed God....but God knew the answer to the Butcher's question.


A Cow being an Animal showed Humanity, by giving its Milk to save the life of that boy, but the Butcher ignored the good deed done by the Cow and harmed a holy soul which provided selfless service to his family.  

P.S : Folks who studied in Karnataka state syllabus in the 90's would remember Punyakoti's story told as a poem in kannada. A beautiful , touching story about the virtue of honesty .. here is a version of it for your hearing and viewing pleasure - Punyakoti's story . Even a ferocious animal like the tiger is moved by the cow's honesty and gives up it's life for trying to kill the cow..

"Animals with Humanity, and Humans with Animal-ity"

Dwiteeya Vighna....Almost !

I guess most of you in India are familiar with the term/phrase/'whatever it's called' - "Dwiteeya Vighna" , meaning any good deed you start , make sure you do it the second consecutive day too. It's a good omen indicating that once you do a job for 2 straight days running, you will continue doing it for as long as needed :) . A long time ago, probably someone figured out the human psyche that you get your brain used to something(atleast for 2 days :)), it will get trained by itself to repeat it !

Not that I am saying writing a Blog is as cool/as important a task as starting to exercise , your first music class ,  getting started on a diet , or even start your career in a new organization! To be honest, I ensured my first day @Netapp was a Monday , so that I could attend office on Tuesday too..you see having a "Dwiteeya Vighna" in my new career did not appeal to me much ..Ohh...wait a minute !!! Is that why our company has a policy that new joinees are welcomed to the company either on a Monday or a Thursday???? 

While on the subject of blogging and it not being as much hyped as other day to day necessities of life.... I was thinking today as to why I instantaneously decided to start blogging last night .. Well, I see this as an opportunity to express myself, my thoughts, my likes/dislikes , my opinions and a lot more of 'my this and my that' .I have written before, during my school days, but not much recently, other than a few lines here n there on FB . 

Then I thought about the subjects and style of blogging.. What will I write about?!! How should I write??? !!!   Should I always be humourous???? Should I brag too much about myself ??? , Do I have to write in awesome English where my readers need a dictionary to comprehend ????

Well, the good news is that I stopped thinking about all this nonsense and decided to give my thoughts and keyboard a free hand !! I will type away to glory, whenever I feel like and whatever I feel like .. and you..my poor readers will have to put up with it..( till the time you decide she is too boring, blah, blah and block me out ! )

I stop writing here, at 11:56 PM .....Hurray !!! I completed this blog on the second day..avoided Dwiteeya Vighna).

Hopefully, I will not follow THE "Moorige Muktaya" :)

The Performer!

Welcome to my first blog ever :) Yes, in this day and age where even a 10 year old has his own blog... a decade after I touched a computer, I am writing my first blog !

Let me start from the start...a trip down the memory lane , to the best phase of most people's lives, CHILDHOOD !!!
I love looking at my old albums time and again ..and also love forcefully making all my folks also browse through them...brings back great memories, infuses the innocence that was my childhood and simply put, lights up a smile on my face!

Here are some pics of me as a pampered plumpy kid ..(which baby is not ! )

There are a lot of memories of school days, the numerous "kunte bille", "pakada pakadi" games played with cousins during summer holidays in ajji mane's "vathara" , the sulking cold wars with sisters, the scoldings from elders for being mischievous..



I would like to share what I miss most in the so called Grown-up life of mine..Performing on stage!!! I used to burst with energy,enthusiasm and creativity whenever there was school day,republic day,teachers' day and multiple other functions at school. Be it dance, drama, fancy dress, skits , mimes ... practice sessions, rehearsals and final stage performances meant a whole lot of fun, missing classes and feeling special and important on the D-day

One particular instance has never left my mind..When in U.K.G, I took part in a play called "The cock and the tiger". I played the part of the cock and a friend of mine called Omkar was the tiger. The other cast were a few rabbits and birds who would help me escape from the tiger. The tiger's only aim in life was to make the cock it's prey(as if it would satisfy it's hunger,I wonder) . We had numerous practice sessions where after a few acts of happy songs and dances, the dreaded chase would start. Omkar would run behind me with all the speed he could muster, making growling noises and extending his paws in the air . I would genuinely get scared and run for my life!!! . Such was the involvement and innocence at that age! That fear would stay with me in every single practice session.. I have always been scared of Omkar since U.K.G . We met a couple of years back after many years of not being in touch..I told him this and he had a hearty laugh .

There was another instance where I was enacting Lord Shiva's role. I was dressed up with the huge jata and gantu(a headress) on my head about 4 hours before the stage act. Finally when we got on to the stage and started dancing, down fell Shiva's jata and what remained was just my original hair in shambles. It was embarassing at that moment , but my Parvati and me completed the dance to a big round of applause

Another of my favourite act was the play on famous Kannada poets and I was "Muddanna kavi" . This great poet is known for his extremely long verses written in the ancient kannada script and I was supposed to deliver one such verse. I remember vividly that whosoever visited our home during that time, was forced to sit in front of me and hear me recite that tough verse a-la Shankar Mahadevan's "Breathless" !

I feel like going on and on , but will apply some brakes here with a closing thought. As kids , growing up through school, we would have played out numerous roles with gay abandon...a bird once, an animal some other time, a tree somewhere , a grown-up yet another time... we would seamlessly fit ourselves into what role we were expected to play...As Adults now, life puts us in various situations where we need to enact multiple roles..a daughter,a wife,a parent, a friend, a sibling, a driver , a chef and what not... Life would seem to be so beautiful, so enjoyable if we display the same gay abandon and jump into each of these roles and play them with the innocence,enthusiasm and fervour as our childhood. Won't you agree with me?


P.S: I have done a bad job of photo editing here , but I'll get better for sure :)