Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Truth about dung: short story

As a kid I used to wonder whats the use of dung. I mean whats cow dung ? is it of any use ? I just wondered. All I could say was dung was nothing but animal waste.

As a science student I learn't that cow dung is a rich manure used in agriculture, and not just that it can be used to produce bio gas with methane and can be used to generate electricity for lighting in rural areas. I just thought wow...!!! now cow dung is of so much use. Its science that has enabled to see us what cow dung is.

A short story:
Krishna who is now a chemical engineer happen to be born in one of those communities which worshiped cow. As a kid Krishna was brought up in the city life and he had limited exposure to cattle. In the neighborhood there was a small number of cattle that was brought to the nearby field for feeding. As the locality in which he stayed belonged to the ill-literates and so learned people, Krishna as young boy would be proud of himself that he learn't and studied in a school.

As a 8th grade school boy he was a topper in the school, he knew more than what an average 8th grade pupil knew. Hence the teachers gave a him some kind of tests in maths and science which were typically taken by the students of 9th grade. He cleared that by a mile, and hence was the most a brilliant student the school had seen so far. After his graduation in chemical engineering where is did loads of experiments in lab, he got employed as engineer in one of the top chemical firms, got married and had son of age 8 named Krishh(latest name ...).

Just when things were all fine, his father died. As a good son, Krishna had do all the formalities. After the funeral at the nearby graveyard Krishna along with family members returned home. There was lamp placed at the entrance of the house and just by the side there was a patch of cow dung. People who came back from the graveyard would come and soil their feet in the cow dung and entered the house. Krishna too did the same thing, as his feet got soiled with cow dung and entered the house. Krishh who was curiously seeing way things happening, didn't understand anything.

He just went to the back door of the house picked up the phenol bottle (a disinfectant) and mixed it with some water and started sprinkling all the places that was soiled by cow dung. All the relatives and family including Krishna were dumb struck on what Krishh was doing. Krishh also removed the patch of cow dung from the place and sprinkled some more of disinfectant. Krishna barely managed to get some smile on and said "I knew the chemical composition of cow dung makes it a disinfectant, hence can now be replaced by phenol, I'm just following our customs".

Without his father's influence as Krishh realized, we all may be able to clear the dung customs and traditions, once we understand it.

3 comments:

  1. Great Dude .... Its not just the language but the message that you have conveyed in such a simple story.
    Really was very much moved, Each has their own style and way of telling what they want to express and you have developed your own and its very effective.

    Love to have small pegs of tequila like this :)

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  2. Nice one Raghu. Well said in your own way

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  3. Nice one:) and the last lines are so true.

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