Cow stories. I have many cow stories.
Yesterday, there was a great bunch of monkeys hanging out by one of the ghats. (A ghat is a place where you walk down steps to a body of water to pray). A man was feeding the monkeys vegetables and they were so cute...one had a baby hanging on to her belly, and some of them were were just chillin on the ground, louging with their legs spread wide. I took lots of photos. I noticed that there was one hungry cow, begging like a poor puppy for some vegetables, and the man kept feeding them only to the monkeys. I said to him, "Feed the cow too. Look, she's hungry." He ignored me. "Feed the cow. I thought cows were holy!" He motioned for me to feed her, but I declined because I didn't want to get my hand full of cow slobber. But it really made me think: Cows really don't seem holy here! I don't understand why they say cows are holy here. They are more like stray dogs. They eat trash. People honk their horns at them and push them away. They are filthy, but beautiful at the same time. I love their eyes. I love the one with the great big horns. I am obsessed with taking pictures of cows.
More cow stories:
*Yesterday, I was standing on the street and a kid tapped me and pointed behind me. I looked behind me and there was a cow rubbing its face all over my backpack!
*I went down to the ghat to make a puja (prayer) for my family and friends and business. You make a puja by putting flowers in the holy lake, the lake that Brahma created and Gandhi's ashes are in. (Yes, it feels funny doing this, as a Jew who knows not much about Hinduism...but I wanted to have this experience) So I walk down barefoot to the ghat, careful not to step in any monkey pee or bird poop. I get ready to make my puja and I notice this cow getting closer and closer to me. I try to ignore but its coming right at my, like it's gonna walk right into me! I realize it wants my flowers! I sprinkle some rose petals on the ground for it to eat and quietly move to another location to do the puja, hoping the cow wouldn't notice. She didn't.
*Today, a poor tourist got scared to death by a par of copulating cows and some sidekicks running at her! Yeah, one pair of cows were having sex and running at the same time, and three other cows were running along side of them. They almost ran into this foreigner who was shopping! After the cows ran off, the shop owner said to the shocked woman, "Oh, you are very lucky!!"
*I saw a cow standing in the street with blood coming out of its nose...just standing there, blood dripping...
As far as other news, my illness has gone away thanks to a combination of rest, vegetable soup, iron pills, and ciprofloxin! I have started buying jewelry again her in Pushkar. I'll be here 2-3 more days...and I may alter my iternery a bit from the original plan.
