Veranda Tales-Turkeys at a spa
Storytelling has been an integral part of my life since childhood. I grew up listening to stories during the hot summer evenings and nights with my cousins. Mothers and grandmothers would gather all of us children for story time. It was usually pitch dark except for a very faint light coming from the flickering candle. Power cuts were as frequent as the hot and humid summer days. We all spread out on a cool concrete floor or bamboo mats on the veranda intently listening to fascinating stories about kings, queens, princes, princesses, and peasants alike. Stories about love, life, families, and people entertained and taught us life skills. These stories transported us to distant worlds, strange yet familiar. Often the same story told by two people sounded different as storytellers added new twists and turns adding their personal style and flair to the stories.
Storytelling wasn’t limited to summer evenings and bedtime. I was surrounded by adults who didn’t pass up an opportunity to share their wisdom using the art of storytelling. These rich vibrant oral traditions include songs, poems, stories, and సామెతలు (Sametalu are proverbs in Telugu). Men and women sing songs as they work in the fields, grinding grains and spices and doing other daily chores at their homes. Stories are often used to teach important life lessons, interpersonal skills, and survival skills. These stories and the time spent listening to them made our lives richer leaving an impression on me. This series is all about reliving those memories as I share these stories.
గోవులకు కోసి చెప్పులు దానం చేసినట్లు (govulu kosi cheppulu danam chesinatlu)
Cows are sacred in India and it is illegal to harm them. Cows are revered and well taken care of during their productive years. Older animals ate left to fend for themselves. You will see them roaming the streets eating whatever they can find. You can spot them munching on papers and cinema posters. They have right of way on any street as they slowly cross the road or walk alongside humans on two legs, in cars, bullock carts, bicycles, auto rickshaws, trucks and all other modes of transportation. It is amazing to watch them dodge the traffic and rest in the medians.
Cows are majestic. It's fascinating to watch them lift their hind legs to scratch their heads and swat flies away with their long tails. They look at you with their large eyes. On a recent visit to India I spent a few days on my aunt’s farm watching a pregnant chocolate brown cow and her one year old brown calf. Mom is fully pregnant waiting to give birth. I watched in awe as she effortlessly and slowly lifted her hindleg balancing on her three legs as she scratched her head with the lifted hind leg. You could tell she was being very careful and deliberate with the movements because of her bulging pregnant belly.
Her calf on the other hand was carefree as she munched on large bunch of freshly harvested జొన్నగడ్డి (jonna gaddi). జొన్నగడ్డి (jonna gaddi) is white sorghum grass in Telugu). Five Guineafowls quickly made an appearance to steal the seeds on the జొన్నగడ్డి (jonna gaddi) as the calf started snorting at them. I wondered if the calf could sense that her mother was about to give birth to her sibling. What was going through her head as she stared at us humans sitting a few feet from her? Did she find the జొన్నగడ్డి (jonna gaddi) delicious? She seemed to since she polished it off quickly.
Cows are considered earthly embodiments of కామధేను (Kamadhenu), divine bovine-goddess described in Hinduism as the mother of all cows. కామధేను (Kamadhenu) emerged out of the cosmic ocean of milk during the క్షీరసాగర మధనం (Kshira Sagara madhanam) when the gods and demons churned the cosmic milk ocean. She was then given to the Saptarishi, the seven great seers. Brahma, the creator, ordered her to provide milk and ghee ("clarified butter") for ritual fire-sacrifices. Cow milk and ghee are used in Hindu rituals. It is considered a sin to harm a cow. “గోవులకు కోసి చెప్పులు దానం చేసినట్లు (govulu kosi cheppulu danam chesinatlu)” means “It is like killing cows and donating sandals made out of their hide”. This sameta has a deeper meaning that the impact of a bad act can’t be undone with a smaller gesture of goodwill.
The tradition of giving turkeys to the President is an old one. Some Presidents consumed the turkeys that were presented to them and others sent them to farms or zoos. Tradition of sending turkeys to farms and zoos has now morphed into pardoning them before sending them off to live on farms. The President of the United States continues the ritual of pardoning two turkeys every year. Two turkeys are selected from a flock of between 50 and 80 birds. They are subjected to loud noises, flash photography, and large crowds to train them for the photo op.
In late October or early November, the best two among the trained turkeys are chosen and given cute names by local school children. Then they are transported to Washington D.C where they enjoy a luxurious few weeks at the Willard InterContinental Washington hotel waiting to fulfil their destiny at the photo op moment of pardon. The pardoned turkeys will live out their remaining years at the Frying Pan Park's Kidwell Farm, a petting farm for children in Herndon, Virginia. It appears the pardon isn’t that magical and most of them live just two years after their pardon.
American taxpayer dollars are very well spent indeed on getting turkeys ready for photo ops, expensive hotel stays and for their luxurious spa treatments every year. When I think about turkey pardoning, “గోవులకు కోసి చెప్పులు దానం చేసినట్లు (govulu kosi cheppulu danam chesinatlu)” sameta comes to my mind. 46,000,000 (46 million) turkeys are killed and consumed by Americans on Thanksgiving day every year and lives of just two turkeys are spared. It is like a drop in the ocean and is inconsequential considering millions of their friends and relatives end up on dinner tables. The incident where a Vice Presidential candidate was pardoning turkeys while turkeys were being slaughtered in the background a few years ago comes to my mind. Just like killing cows and donating sandals made out of their hide doesn’t earn enough good karma points to offset the bad karma points earned by killing cows.