Gone with a bleat

When I thought today is going to be a normal day little did I know nature has something else planned. As usual nature has her own ways of doing things. No subtle hints whatsoever, no dramatic thunderstorms, no torpedoes with uprooted trees twirling around and cows flying amok to warn me. Nothing, Nada, Zilch.

Lying next to me is my friend and the prankster in me was already up urging to have some fun. I launch myself with a loud shout on him and scare him shitless. Expecting a reprisal I was prepared but distracted by the smell of camphor and inveterate bleating – an unusual combination but too late he pins me down. I see something bright and yellow move towards me, it was hazy. I thought my friend went over board and is on the verge of strangling me. Our neighbor – the yellow blur, kindly walks in and pulls us apart. I feel silly now. Well our neighbor is a likable guy, naïve and playful with everyone. I thank him for saving me and began to talk about mundane things. The smell that emanates from the temple was more evident now mixed with sweet aromas of freshly broken coconuts and lit camphor. Abruptly our vision’s blurred black, and the bleating increase. It was a fraction later we realized the blackness is moving away with our neighbor in tow. It is taking time for me to register the series of incidents that were happening which  resembled the pre-climax scene in Mortal Kombat where Sonya is taken away by Shang Tsung. Then everything settled down. We did the most logical thing we could, go to the millennium man.

It has been a ritual since a month for us to venture out into green pastures. Both me and my friend are not sure what has happened in our lives before the month, completely clueless. But there is this very old man, millennium man. Some claim he was born at the turn of the millennium. Some say he was born a little earlier and had a glimpse of the millennium celebrations. One day I mustered up my guts to ask him about us and he says we were brought while he was ruminating his lunch. He doesn’t remember exactly but saw us being brought a month ago. He mentioned we were brought in by the same ones who brought him too when we pressed him more into divulging our past. His usually smug face turned forlorn when we mentioned about the happenings of the day. Then he turned cranky and asked us to get going. We felt odd but kept our feelings to ourselves and set out to proceed with our ritual.

Our days generally started with a back breaking journey to somewhere, where the clanging of the bells is inherent, smell of burning incense/camphor and the sweet smell of freshly broken coconuts. We never knew what it was. It is usually dull and quite dark inside except once in a while when the side wall is moved and we have unlimited to access to sunlight. Those days are exceptional and we look forward for that day each day. A brilliant idea stuck my mind and I convinced my friend that we would look for our neighbor instead of going to the pasture today. We started walking around and to our surprise we found we were in a temple premises. We run around all the way up and down the temple alleys, we meet other people and some pigeons too. Almost all people sound friendly except that there are these huge shapes that resemble tree trunks and moved around. It seemed similar to the running hadrosaurs scene in Jurassic park where the kids could only see a cluster of barks running all around. Without a care we run around and also look for our lost neighbor.

A bright yellow pull over reflects the afternoon sun bright into our faces, guess we found our answer. Our friend was right around at the corner of the temple wall as if he is hiding and trying to look at someone. We felt elated to have found him but were angry too. Most part of the day running around in green white fields was wasted due to him. We wanted to get back at him and we decide on an ambush. I ask my friend to cover the ground and come from the other side while I readied myself to pounce from this side. 1,2,3 we run and I give a hefty push on my neighbor’s back. At the same moment I hear a blood curling shout from my friend. I turn to see what has transpired but my feet touch something slippery and I take a nasty fall. I could see my friend was shaken and his face was completely ashen. I turn in the direction where he was looking and by god I fainted. The neighbor’s yellow body had dried blood in place of a head and the slippery surface I fell on was the blood that gushed out of him. I was just not sure what to do, so helpless lying on the ground I look around. For the first time I understood what those barks that moved around were. Everything seemed so confusing, was I imagining things or is this an aftershock seeing my neighbor’s body since I was seeing goats walking around. I then notice the millennium man staring at me sadly. Our eyes met and his seem to convey an unsaid apology to me. Then for a second I saw what I thought was fear in his eyes. Before I could react and ask him what, a hoof snatched my long hair and pulled hard at it. It dragged me to a congregation of goats, some decked in flowers, a goat in red garb and gold, some wearing traditional clothes. They assembled in front of a strange statue which predictably resembled a goat with multiple hoofs and different weapons in each hoof.

Quite interesting! I thought but not as interesting as what is happening to me. The goat wearing flowers and gold bends down, smears some red paste on to my forehead and then lights camphor. She turns the camphor fire thrice in anti clockwise direction in my face. I still was not sure why they were doing this while the hoof held me in place. It was quite painful to be frank. I try to push and escape when the powerful body that  owns the hoof kicks me hard on my legs. I feel crippled, well almost. Pain radiated from my legs to my head and my body feels sore from all the stress. Some day I’m having I say to myself. All of a sudden I hear rhythmic bleating, something similar to what I heard this morning. The bleating increases in intensity and sound. The goats seems to be in some sort of a trance. I was then secured to a stone with my neck nicely edged in-between two stones. As disconcerting that seemed to be, it felt good for my strained neck muscles.

The muscular goat now took few steps backward. From my tilted view point I could see there is something shining in his hand. I could see a goat wearing everything red chanting bleats and everyone rhythmically moving. I then feel something on the back of my neck, cold and sharp. In a fleeting moment I realize what is going on but its too late, the muscular goat brought down the blade and with a thud my head was separated from my body. A burning sensation seared my neck. I could feel a liquid seeping into my head, but funnily I am feeling light headed. If my head is separated from the body and I was thinking with my head shouldn’t I feel light bodied? I could feel something slimy and wet touch my face on one side, my vision starts turning red. Oh! My own blood! How about that! I could feel my body being lifted up and being offered to that strange goat god!

If you think this was what I saw last, you are mistaken. My friend was curiously watching the proceedings while I could see the muscular hoof converging over his head. The last I heard was yet another blood curling scream from him.

                                             The red panda (Brahmins who perfom ceremonies)

This was what I thought after I visited Kamakhya temple and witnessed the animal sacrifice there. It is an interesting thought to reverse our roles with goats and yeah pigeons too.