Animals Part 2

Cows

Yes, it is true; there are cows everywhere here. They are a regular part of the street life. Groups of five of them will mosey along the street, doin their own thing. Autorickshaw drivers will honk at them to hurry up and cross the road. Many of them have huge, long horns, but they are almost always very calm and complacent. They will lay down in the median in the road or be chowing down out of a trash dumpster.

As I said 99.9% of the time, they are completely mellow and calm, just ambling slowly down the street. So one time I was in an auto, and here comes a cow galloping down the middle of the road at full speed. Now for me, of course, this was new so I craned my head out to see it running past us. The best part was that I wasn't the only one surprised because the driver, too, craned his neck back and had a "What the Hell?" expression on his face. I wonder where that cow had to be so quickly...

My friend also witnessed a cow running down the street. Only this one had huge horns and was chasing a guy. The guy in front was running full speed, carrying a bicycle. He kept running until he got to a dead end, so I guess as a last defense, the man turned around and shook the bike at the cow as a shield. And the cow stopped and went on its way.

Lizard/Gecko

The little lizard/gecko is also a common household animal. You'll often see them walking around on the walls. We actually have two now - we had a little one, maybe 4" long, that lived in a hole in the wall that was for the hose to connect the gas cylinder to the cooker. I would go in the kitchen late and night, and see a scurrying for him to run back from the counter into his hole. But he only came out at night. We recently got a new one, who is maybe an inch longer and a little bulkier. He is quite the gutsy one, because several times the other day he walked on the floor into the living room- usually I only see them on the walls. I think he was trying to get Rashmi, who was sitting on the couch, because she hates the lizards! Of all the animals here, I really don't have any problem with them though. They say they eat bugs, so I'm all for that.

My friend told me that one night she was working late at her desk in her apartment, and there were two of the geckos on the wall. All of a sudden, the one ran up and bit the tail off the other one. She was so surprised, she screamed. The one still lives in her flat, and you can tell where the tail has been growing back.

goats
Ahmedabad can sometimes be a little rural farm in the middle of the city. For example on the way to CEPT there is open park in the midst of shops and buildings along the road. On the sidewalk there is a entire little shrine where they sell decorative small landscape rocks. At least I think they are selling them...On the sidewalk are all these crazy, colorful sculptures with hindu gods and stuff mixed in. And just past that is a goat farm in the middle of the city. It's kind of an unauthorized thing, and the goats just walk around the street. I'd say there has to be usually at least 30 of them. There's a big empty lot just down the street, and in the mornings you can see people herding them to this lot to eat. Even in Gandhinagar they do this. There is a lot of empty space there planted with lots of trees, so it makes it much more rural feeling there though.

In the 'winter' here, my friend in Benaras says that they often put sweaters on the goats even.

One day, my friend and I were walking around the old city and came to a big chowk (plaza). As we were wondering, we noticed a single goat there. And a single, empty autorickshaw with a driver no where in sight. All of a sudden the goat climbs into the back of the auto, like a passenger. At this point we can't see it, because the autos have closed tops, so we go for a closer peek. The goat is proceeding to chow down on the yellow, vinyl cover. Now, to foreigners of course this is all new and exciting. So the best thing for me is when these things actually surprise the Indians, too. As we stood there, an Indian woman who was walking by also stopped to stare at the goat, so we knew it wasn't a normal occurance!

elephants

Even here in Ahmedabad, in the city you can find elephants. Not roaming around wild or anything, but walking down the street with a elephant trainer, Mahout, on top. Sometimes in the old city, you can find places where they feed them. In intersections they will put down vegetables in the street, and the elephants will just be there eating. I don't see them that often here though, so it's still exciting when you see one.