A Buffalo High on Cannabis Leaves

There have been lots of rains this winter taking the short-lived, effervescent Indian spring well into April. So much so that temperatures have been lenient, pushing the real north Indian summer into the latter half of May. This and the fact that lockdown saw very few people scampering around gave cannabis plants full freedom to encroach every nook corner in the village. Suitable temperatures, sufficient rainfall and less human footfall, that's what the plant of artificial pleasure needs to mushroom around.

Wine outlets were closed for almost two months due to the lockdown, so many a people took recourse to chewing cannabis leaves as an alternative to beat their boredom with life. They chewed like goats absorbed in the greenest pastures. Mother Nature is always kind; even if she has to punish us mildly, she keeps lollypops also to bring a smile to the crying errant kid whose ears she has just twisted. So she gives cannabis growth at every nook corner in this phase of pains and miseries.    

In our extended family, auntie has a well fed, pampered docile buffalo. The bulky creature is gentle and well behaved. No wonder, auntie treats it like her daughter. But then these are testing times for all of us. New problems surface with effortless ease presently. The docile daughter too takes an off from her well-groomed domestication etiquettes. She feasts on wild cannabis plants for a change of taste and gets a high. The affable, gentle daughter gets drugged and misbehavior unspools. The black beauty gets naughty and plays truant. Poor auntie was pinned in a corner, not exactly with the intention of hurting her critically.

Even a buffalo has her version of playing mischief after getting high on substance. Auntie was holding the horns and the buffalo pushed and prodded with enough force to scare her out of her wits. However, the mischief was surely purposely short of really harmful force to avoid breaking bones.

Auntie's other pet, Labrador Tuffy, thought the buffalo is going to kill his godmother. He pounced in defence and pinned his teeth on the offender's hind leg. The buffalo felt insulted. Her drugged light bantering spirits withdrew to allow raw anger to surface. She must have felt terribly insulted on being treated like a substance addict by the canine moralist. The aggrieved buffalo chased the dog around the compound with the intention of killing it. The poor chap panicked and got onto the fence and jumped. It is seen limping now. The buffalo too carries her battle scar on her hind leg. Thank God, animals forget and forgive! Had they possessed memory like we humans, it would have turned into a long standing bloody feud.