Prejudice

   Prejudices govern our wor(l)ds. Want proof? Okay. Look at buffaloes. Actually, except for the super senior citizens and the super junior babies below twelve months, rest all depend on the buffalo milk, thick, fat enriched, adding a creamy layer and taste to your tea or coffee, which the comparatively thinner cow milk, despite all its medicinal value, can never manage. 

Yet, none respect the buffaloes. They appear too large, too dull, too lazy to be liked. Often they seem to plomp down in water, chewing the grass endlessly, with the most vacant empty eyes. Bovine is the adjective used to describe them, or the so-called dull in the human world. 

Neither is their colour or hide designed to endear them to a world sold on external beauty. Unlike the does with the golden spotted hide or the cows with milky white to pale amber hides, buffaloes are always jet black, and with a thick rubbery hide. Hence all the prejudices against them. 

Their habits/habitats are not much to write home about either. Most Indian buffaloes are water buffaloes. They use mud wallows to cool their almost hairless, highly sensitive skin. This behavior protects them from insects and the harsh sun, making them ideally adapted to marshy, tropical climate conditions.

Actually, they are very supportive animals. Look at the birds who feed off the insects on/around a buffalo. Compared to the huge size of the buffalo, they are tiny. Has anyone ever heard though about a buffalo (herd) stamping the birds (to death)? 

The herd seems to have a cozy togetherness. They entirely on their own seem to return to the shed, which shows intelligent communication and a very strong sense of smell.

 In brief, this bestie of a farmer/milkman may look out of fashion forever. Yet, actually, she is the most 'in' animal, quiet, gentle, dependable!

Pratima@A buffalo is not lazy. It is the physique that requires those ritual mud baths, absolutely healthy for them, unlike the excessively health conscious amongst the urban elite who, too, love mud baths, supposedly medicinal!

Quote of the day:                                            "Prejudice is the child of ignorance," argued William Hazlitt

Word of the day: Prejudice                                       Prejudice is an unjustified, typically negative attitude, belief, or feeling toward an individual or group, formed beforehand,  based on inadequate knowledge. It often stems from stereotyping.