My encounter with bull

Last evening my encounter was with a bull. My house is strategically located that all types of vehicles including video coach buses pass through the road in front of my house. There would be cows and bulls and dogs moving around as well. I was about to take my bike from the road and park inside the gate. I saw this bull which was well built and he looked a bit aggressive. His horns were sharp and big. But he was walking rather slowly but confident enough to know where his home is unlike those humans who get out of the bar on the nearby main road. Since it was getting dark I thought I would make him walk faster. I made a sound which I had heard people making at my village to speed up these bullocks. I cannot describe how the sound would look like. In any case you may not encounter such a situation. So there is no need to know that.

Hearing my sound this bull just stopped. Turned around and started charging towards me. I ran inside and closed the gate. I was not sure what he wanted. I did not know any other sound that would sound like “Sorry. You may go as you wish” to him. To my relief he waited for a few minutes and then went off.

There is a saying in Malayalam “Veliyelirunna Paambine eduthu vendaathidathu vechu”. Literal translation is “Took a snake which was on the fence and kept it in unwanted place (of one’s body)! Unwanted for the snake but much wanted by you. Some people have precisely specified that “unwanted place” for better clarity while using this saying. Anyways our focus is not that. So let’s continue. The meaning of that saying is that “somebody knowingly invited trouble”. I did just that in the case of this bull.

We were touring Delhi during our bachelor days. One of our guys got sick. He was running high temperature. He wanted to stay back at the hotel room in the evening when we decided to go for a walk. Some of us knew it was a blessing in disguise as this guy was capable of creating some trouble to all of us. But some felt sorry for him. Gave him a Crocin tablet and urged him to join us as otherwise he would be left alone in the room. We all set off in the Karol Bagh area. “Look that lady. She is so pretty” the high temperature fellow shouted in Malayalam. All of us saw a young couple walking in front of us. For a moment all of us were trying to look at that lady from different angles to validate our friend’s words. That exercise lasted for a few seconds only. The young husband looked back and told “after seeing her beauty only I married her. You guys have any problem?” in a much better Malayalam than any of us could speak! We all were shell shocked. One guy took some courage and said “Sorry Chetta” which settled the issue there with no further confrontations.

Our customer office in Singapore was at Gateway East on beach road. Gateway East and West are adjacent towers with 30+ floors and cross section of each building was a rhombus. We were given a company accommodation at a complex near to work place. It was a big complex with first few floors being commercial and the rest used for residential purpose. We were in the 8^th floor flat with a good view of the road that leads to Little India. We came to know another person was joining that week to share the acco. I came to know much more. I came to know that this new arrival would be pain in the a** - much wanted place in the body ! He arrived. As he spoke I realized that he had to use that four letter word quite often. In fact he used that word as we use commas while writing. We use comma whether it is required or not. More often we use it when it is not required. (By the way I read somebody saying if comma is abolished no harm will be done to the English language. I tried it today. No commas in my blog! My friend Ganesan uses commas sparingly in a sentence but he uses as many as three of them in tandem to denote a full stop!).

Five days passed by. On Saturday morning I was sitting near the window and watching all the action on the road leads to Little India. All others were still sleeping. Our four letter man came out of his room holding his soiled clothes. “Where to” I just asked. “Four letter Word Man I am going to give these to laundry”. Though I knew I might get into some trouble I could not resist telling him that it would be too expensive. I told him he could as well use the washing machine in the house. He hadn’t seen it in the house even after five days. “Very good idea” he said. He made me take him to near washing machine. “Where is the switch?”. I switched it on for him. “How to open the washing machine door?” I opened it for him. “How to put these clothes?” I just told him he needs to drop them one by one. “that is all?” I told him he needs to put some detergent. “How much and where ?” I just told him couple of spoons and he was still waiting for me to put those clothes and detergent. I realized that I touched the snake and it was getting into unwanted places. I told him I had to go out now. I hurriedly went out. I walked towards Little India with no purpose – one place one can just go in Singapore even if there is no need!

There would be snakes on the fence. May be they enjoy that environment. If you think they are trapped you can shout. But there is no use as snakes have no ears. You can stand 12 feet away and throw some stones on the fence (not at the snake!) or use a long stick to shake the fence. Still if it is not moving and if you are brave enough you can catch it on its neck and release it on the ground.  But do not attempt to take it and keep it close to your body. You know the snake can bite and can be poisonous. Though the snake might not know it. Keep them away not to get harmed.