Holy cow!

Say "cow" to an English person and we probably all think of green fields, and herds of grazing Friesians - maybe Jerseys with big brown eyes - scenes of pastoral peace.   It's simple enough - cows live on farms and provide us with milk and beef.

When I came here I knew that cows are sacred in the Hindu religion, but I hadn't really given any thought to what that means, other than that roast beef was off the menu.  To be honest I'm still not sure what the significance is.  But what is clear to me is that cows here live very different lives from their English relatives.

There are cows that live outside temples, and cows with their horns painted red and yellow in celebration of a festival.  In the cities cows graze on the grass verges and on piles of rubbish at the side of the road.  They seem to be unattended and untethered, but apparently they are collected and taken home in the evening.

 They wander randomly in the traffic - woe betide if you should hit one with your car - best to lock the doors, wind up the windows and drive to the nearest police station rather than wait for a crowd to gather.

Generally, whether in the city or the country we saw cows in ones and twos rather than the herds we are used to at home.  In the country we also saw people walking the cow.  It appears to be a fairly low-status job, usually done by women, boys or old men. I'm guessing it's function is to seek out the nearest patch of reasonable grazing rather than exercise!

Some cows work - in the city you see them in the thick of  the traffic pulling carts; in the country they pull ploughs in the rice fields.

There are several varieties of cows in India these days.  Friesians are apparently popular because of their high milk yield.   The working cows are the traditional Indian horned variety.  All varieties wander freely through daily life.

But as for the sacred thing, I'm still rather mystified.