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Office staff and visitors who were present at the Subarnapur district Collector’s office on Wednesday were moved by an elderly woman’s pain of separation from her cow.
The unconditional love between her and a cow has now become the talk of the town.
Tarasi Bagh, a wizened woman, has no one to call her own. While the verandah of the Subarnapur district headquarters hospital (DHH) is her shelter since the last 20 years, she has been living on alms.
While women of her age are being taken care of by their children and family, Tarasi is not so fortunate. Yet, she has never felt sad. Rather, she has made herself strong to endure all hardships coming her way. But the strong willed granny was seen vulnerable and weak on Wednesday. She was seen crying inconsolably like a child at the Collector’s office after failing to find a stray cow, her only companion in the cruel world.
She has a weakness for stray cattle. She derives immense pleasure by sharing her earnings from begging with them. However, a cow, who she fondly calls ‘Chinu’, has a special place in her heart. She had rescued ‘Chinu’ when she was a calf. Then she reared it as her own child. Sometime later, 'Chinu' gave birth to four calves.
'Chinu' and its calf were with Tarasi till a few months ago when the municipality authorities carried out a drive to get the roads free of stray cattle to reduce accidents. Among the cattle caught and released in ‘Go-Shraddha’ centre were her ‘Chinu’ and its calf.
She has been doing rounds of the municipality and Collector’s offices for the last three months, hoping a babu would listen to her and help her get back her children. But none seems to understand the depth of her bonding with the cows. “My life is my cows. I can’t live without them. Some people are saying my cows have died and some others say they have been sold,” said a sobbing Tarasi.
Like on any other day, Tarasi visited the Collector’s office on Wednesday and happened to come across Collector Aboli Sunil Naravane. She opened her heart to the Collector, narrated everything and requested her intervention.
“After hearing her grievance, I took Mausi (Tarasi) to the ‘Go-Shraddha’ centre. But she couldn’t identify her cows. We will take her to the centre once more, hoping she would recognise them,” said Naravane.
