How much are you in the share market? Not much? No worries! I am zilch, too. Yet even a non-shareholder like me, too, knows that when the market is bullish, the securites are up, unlike the bear version thereof.
Do you know how/why this usage "bullish" is part of the financial folklore? Well, it comes from the style a bull attacks a foe, with the horns raised. Well, I suppose this must be the only positive reference to a bull, right?
Otherwise, a bull is almost always a brainless beast of burden. Want proof? Look at the western, sun-oriented, astrological signs. Look at the Taurus people therein. The geniuses in any field belong to this sun-sign, yours truly, too, included!🤣
Well, do you know the hallmark of the Taurus people? They are obstinate apparently. Know now why i find it darn difficult to believe the typical astrology and/or its predictions!!!
Jokes apart, a bull is always supposed to be quite dull and absolutely not intelligent, though powerful but lazy. Remember the great "Animal Farm"? Boxer is a carthorse. He shares so many of the bull-ish qualities, except, of course, laziness.
Why wax eloquent about a bull, you would ask. Well, in Maharashtra, it is "bail-pola" today, a day dedicated to bullocks, and I find that amazing. True, agriculture these days is quite mechanised. Even then, a farmer's fastest friend has to be the bull!
In an agrarian community/economy, a bullock is the fulcrum of existence. It is his power that the farm existence rides on every which way. He helps mankind, even after death, in tanning, in creating folk forms of drums, for instance.
It is hence that i feel that celebrating "bail-pola" is a form of gratitude that the animal absolutely deserves. I suppose cultural practices do not remain a mere meaningless ritual if we interpret the poetry beyond such customs.
On this day, most often the only one, the bull is properly bathed, he is decorated, he is fed the best food. Well, such should be the practice the yearlong indeed. Well, as our consumer economy has drilled it into us, the "day" celebrations are, and have to be, just for a day! Such a "day" long celebration gives the parties concerned the full freedom to ignore, and misbehave every which possible way the rest of the year with the so-called brainless beast of buden, right?
Actually, be it the bulls, the donkeys, the carthorses, they are silently suffering powerhouses that drive so many rural realities, right? Indirectly they feed the urban lifestyle, too, because we cannot eat money, whatever might be the century , the stage of automation, et al, et al!
Hence let us not go the Spanish fiercely cruel way of the traditional bull-runs and bull-fights. Instead, let us be grateful to these quiet creatures , rather like the labour force, forever, and not merely on the day of the "bail-pola"!
Pratima@The tale every boring bullock tells/ of workers' patience and hard/smart work spells!
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