3 Stars

Disclaimer: I picked this up as a memoir for a reading challenge because I prefer lighthearted memoirs.

The author is an NRI, a US returnee in India, and it shows on every page of the book.
It has been written for the US audience, and I’m not sure how much they’d be interested in without feeling overwhelmed and confused.

The Indian readers, on the other hand, would have had many more experiences with cattle (at least many of them would). There’s quite a lot of information overload, a good lot of taken from other sources. Even some of the initial statements seem to be rather carelessly summarized from news portals.

Also, I could do without some of that high-flying attitude implicit in the overall tone. Moreover, the book is quite disjointed. I wasn’t surprised to read in the author’s note that these were first shared as individual installments. The stitching together of various incidents to create a book is quite evident.

That said, Sarala is a wonderful character, or rather person, and her grit, resilience, persistence, and acceptance of life are not uncommon in people whose livelihood depends on cattle rearing.
I lived in the same street where a family had buffalos and cows at home and was into the diary business. The smell of cattle is hard to miss, even on people. But what’s more apparent is their hardworking nature and their determination to lead a dignified life. Yeah, they aren’t perfect by any means. Some of them are aggressive and (over)protective of their cattle. Can’t blame them either. They lose everything if they lose even a cow.

I didn’t even have to imagine Sarala. I’ve seen her every day for almost two and a half decades. We’ve gotten milk from them (though we had another milkman).

We know their pain when they don’t find their cows. They drive through the same roads, enquiring if anyone has seen a certain cow grazing in the open lands. The cows could be stolen, bound, and carried off to the butchers, and they wouldn’t even know until it’s too late at times. Imagine someone stealing your livelihood for their personal gains.

It does make one wonder why cows are left to graze outside on the roads. The answer is simple. Feeding a cow is costly. They eat a lot (to produce milk twice a day), and the milkmen wouldn’t have any money left if they had to feed the cows. They give them as much as they can afford and leave the cows to graze in the open and eat their fill. That’s why running a gaushala (a shelter home for cows) is so darn expensive and needs donations to care for the cows and calves.

Even today, we get milk from our milkmen (or boys, they are young guys), and well, we prefer it over the packeted version. By the way, we get buffalo milk for daily use and cow milk during festivals.
And hey, we used gaumutra in our new home because we couldn’t bring a cow (it wouldn’t fit in the elevator). Just throwing in some ‘shocking facts’ as the author did in the book.

Now you see why I’m not really impressed by the book. I like that it was about Sarala, but that’s about it. The author’s latest book seems to be a lot better than this, so I might pick it up.

*****

Note: A lot of 'educated' people on social media make jokes and call Hindus cow-piss drinkers. They think that the gaumutra jibe signifies their superior intellect. It is not. Instead, it is a sign of Hinduphobia. It is not funny. Neither does it make them cool or woke.