A buffalo's breach of modesty

 

Little Jitender, nicknamed Jitte, had some playing marbles during the eighties of the last century. Those were the days besprinkled with ineffable traces of playfulness looming in the idyllic village air. But a little boy is still a little one, and sometimes even the scintillating and ravishing virginities of childhood fail to beat the boredom. So even with a lot of marbles jingling in his pockets, he felt bored with the usual type of play with the marbles.

Sehdev’s buffalo, sitting and chewing cud with incontestable nonchalance, appeared a nice subject for pampering the prodigally tumultuous spirit in the boy. The best-looking big, black marble was now in the buffalo’s possession, albeit for a little time, as the buffalo would ease herself and lose it again. From all angles, the deed was too much rough hewn even from the standard of childhood acts of omission and commission.

A rival urchin saw him performing the task that was meant to beat Jitte’s boredom. He ran to inform the owner. The farmer, for good reasons, took it as if the honor of his buffalo was violated. He was left fuming with a sense of indigence and anger. Now little Jitte’s honor was imperiled. The rough farmer magisterially held the culprit. A bright colored marble glistened in his fingers, itching to settle scores and get justice for his buffalo.

‘Now you will realize how it feels to come into the possession of a marble the wrong way!’ he gnashed his teeth. But before he could carry out the revenge, Jitte’s hefty grandmother stomped both her elbows into the farmer’s back, sending him rolling over in the dust. Sehdev himself came dangerously close to feel the experience of his buffalo. It took the effort of a few people to retrieve him with his honor intact. The malevolent marble was snatched from her fist and thrown away. Many children ran to get it back. The boy who had informed Sehdev and later Jitte’s granny yelled at the top of his voice, ‘Dadi, don’t go back, I will get it back for you!’ Well, he wanted full action that day.