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Sunday, February 20, 2005
The buffalo, the BBC and a taste for tobacco
The Hindustan Times has a story on a buffalo that refused to be milked without BBC? Excuse you? Ok. BBC is an acronym for Buddhi Bardhak Choorn, also known as Khaini, a kind of tobacco that a buffalo in Jharkand has become addicted to. The report reveals:
All this reminds me of a friend who was similarly finicky. Once we were sitting at a restaurant called High Point in Lokhandwala, and we ordered tea. As the waiter was leaving the table, my friend said to him, "dekho yaar, bhains ki doodh se banao, main gaaye ki doodh nahin peeta." ("Look dude, make it with buffalo milk, I don't have cow's milk".)
The fellow went off and returned 10 minutes later with two cups of tea. My friend picked up his cup, took a sip, and spat it out with an expression of disgust. "Abay, kuttey ki aulaad," he said, "yeh tho bhains ki doodh nahin hai." ("Eh, son of a dog, this is not buffalo's milk.")
He couldn't tell Coke from Pepsi, though.
For its owner Mangra Munda, a resident of Lohardagga district, the addiction has turned into a headache. For along with fodder, he has to shell out plenty of tobacco.
His buffalo demands the chewing tobacco six times a day and makes life difficult if it doesn't get adequate amounts.
"If we fail to provide chewing tobacco on time then it becomes horrible. The buffalo's strong urge for tobacco makes it wild and it can do anything for khaini. It starts to break the rope it is tethered with," Munda said.
"If it is not tethered, it smells out people consuming khaini and follows them around. Sometimes it wanders off quite a few kilometres and returns only after consuming some of it."
All this reminds me of a friend who was similarly finicky. Once we were sitting at a restaurant called High Point in Lokhandwala, and we ordered tea. As the waiter was leaving the table, my friend said to him, "dekho yaar, bhains ki doodh se banao, main gaaye ki doodh nahin peeta." ("Look dude, make it with buffalo milk, I don't have cow's milk".)
The fellow went off and returned 10 minutes later with two cups of tea. My friend picked up his cup, took a sip, and spat it out with an expression of disgust. "Abay, kuttey ki aulaad," he said, "yeh tho bhains ki doodh nahin hai." ("Eh, son of a dog, this is not buffalo's milk.")
He couldn't tell Coke from Pepsi, though.
