Poovali
Poovali, Poovali ,What a huge animal it is ! exclaimed the crowd.One of the villagers in the crowd said that the lovely animal had won the best animal title for the past five years.The tahsildar of the taluk had given the best animal title to the animal of the village.Poovali participated in the animal contest and won the first prizes for the past five years.A silver bucket and a cash prize of rupees five hundred was received by the owner of the animal. The best owner title was also given to Aatchi, the owner of the Aatchi farm. The animal and Aatchi photos were published in local dailies and they were very popular in the taluk. Obviously Aatchi and her family members treated Poovali as their treasure.They also worshipped it as a sacred animal.
Poovali was a terrible cow in the Aatchi farm of a small rural village. It was white with two sharped straight horns .The horns were looked like a flower bucket in shape and so she was called poovali.Poovali tossed many people in the village including men and women who had come across the dangerous animal. But the animal behaved like a child at the hands of Aatchi.She was a guardian of the farm also. The farm gate was opened at six o'clock in the morning. Poovali came out majestically with the other animals .At that time the streets were deserted .There was no sign of people on the street until the cattle disappeared .After the disappearance of the cattle only , the village men, women and children came out of theirs houses . Then they did their regular works.That was the routine work of the villagers. One fine morning a woman went to the temple tank to bring drinking water. She was followed by her five years old daughter. The woman didn't know it . Suddenly she saw Poovali which ran towards her. She stepped into the tank for safety . She was narrowly escaped from the animal. When the little girl saw Poovali and she cried bitterly. Her mother noticed her. She didn't know what to do. Nearby people were eagerly watching the incident from their houses. Poovali didn't hurt the little girl and went away.
During the Pongal festival, the festival of harvest, there was a traditional function which was held at the village temple.The function was celebrated in the village for the past fifty years. The villagers believed that the festival was a good one for villagers cattle . The villagers decorated theirs cows and gathered them in front of the temple. The forest god of the temple was brought to the spot . Turmeric water was poured on the cattle. The villagers worshipped the god and the cattle.A ring of fire was formed around the cattle. The cows were forced to jump out of the fire The villagers were very much afraid about Poovali. Murugan, the cow boy brought the dangerous animal. He only made the animal to jump out of the ring of fire. Poovali jumped out of the fire gently. What a beautiful animal it is! the villagers astonished. The decorated animal walked towards the Aatchi farm majestically along with the cowboy.
One midnight,a goat thief entered into the Aatchi farm . Poovali noticed him . She made a huge noise and tried to come out of the cow shed. The noise made by Poovali disturbed the sleep of Aatchi.She and her grand daughter came out of the house with a hurricane light. But the thief hid in the pile of straw nearby. They found nothing inside the cow shed. But Poovali was in a ferocious mood . Aatchi rushed towards her and made her quite .Then she became normal and they went into the house . After some time Poovali moo again .Now all animals mooed . Aatchi and her grand daughter came out of the house once again. Now they saw a man who jumped out of the farm gate and stumbled away from the cow shed. His right leg was injured and blood dropped out of his leg. Poovali roamed here and there like a musth elephant. After she saw Aatchi, she became normal . Aatchi brought and tied her in the cattle shed . Well-done Poovali, You had done a good job, she exclaimed . Thus Poovali saved some goats from the goat thief that night.
Rainy season started as usual in the village during Purattasi, the Tamil month. The weather report said that there was a low depression formed in the sea . The village was very near to the sea. The village was completely affected by the continuous rain fall. One stormy night the cow shed was completely demolished . Aatchi heard the sad mooed of the cows . She was not able to come out of the house due to heavy storm and rain . When the storm was over she visited the cow shed . She found that the most of the cows in the farm were died. The great animal Poovali also died . Aatchi was not able to control her emotions and she wept for so many hours . The poor animal dominated the social scenario of the small village for more than twenty years.
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