Skip to main content

The cow and the mosquito

The picture is from the ISKCON site.

The cow asked the mosquito, “There’s so much milk in my udder.  Why are you then sucking my blood?”


The mosquito grinned at the cow and went on sucking the blood. 

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 19, 2013 at 4:12 PM

    Hahaha..Just like the Iskcon guys sucks our Money in the name of service to God even money is not needed for the service of God

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 19, 2013 at 4:18 PM

      I borrowed the pic from ISKCON but did not intend to make fun of them. I was referring to the normal tendency of certain species (of people, particularly) who are bent upon sucking the blood of others when there are far better things to be extracted!

      Delete
    2. AnonymousAugust 19, 2013 at 6:10 PM

      I know you're not making fun of them but everyone knows the truth they are sucking People's money in the name of service to god...I am not referring to God I am referring to the Iskcon Guys not only Iskcon but most of the Big temples in India they are taking it up as a business..

      Delete
  2. SidAugust 19, 2013 at 6:06 PM

    I too was wondering what you would be doing on the ISKCON site? I thought you were an atheist(who was by birth a Christian).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 19, 2013 at 6:20 PM

      I was doing nothing at the ISKCON site, Sid. I just google for a picture of a smiling cow and google landed me at ISKCON :)

      Delete
  3. wingsAugust 19, 2013 at 9:17 PM

    Wow! What a parable! Milk is your cup of tea! Blood is your Boss' cup of tea! Ha..Ha.. What a Dairy! Hats of to you, sir.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 20, 2013 at 6:35 AM

      Wings, see how you applied it to life around you and found the small post relevant and meaningful. There are lots of people in the world who can find it similarly relevant and meaningful.

      By the way, I should make it clear that the idea is borrowed from a Malayalam poet whose name I can't recall.

      Delete
  4. GurujiAugust 20, 2013 at 8:29 AM

    That poem is one that perplexed me always, as biologically speaking nothing wrong in what the mosquito is doing. But from the view point of a creature that likes milk more than blood, its wrong. And I get confused thinking what is absolute right, if there is such a thing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 20, 2013 at 12:09 PM

      The poem is not about absoluteness, Santhosh. At any rate, is there anything absolute outside the world of mathematical sciences? The poem conveys the idea that even when there are a lot of good things to be looked at many people would rather go looking for the ugly side of reality.

      Cows and mosquitoes don't read literature, you see. It's all for us, those who create meaning with words.

      Delete
  5. Sanjay Kumar SrivastavaAugust 20, 2013 at 9:59 AM

    This is all about ordination, which you have narrated in few simple lines. And, that is why most of the people are "Nearer the Church, And Farther the God".
    Nevertheless, Excellent.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 20, 2013 at 12:12 PM

      You know, by mentioning ISKCON I was merely acknowledging the source of the pic. The post has little to do with religion, though it can be applied to religion as well.

      You are right: those who wear the trappings of religion on their sleeve are the least religious.

      Delete
  6. RatAugust 20, 2013 at 11:21 AM

    wow.. simple and a wonderful parable. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousAugust 20, 2013 at 1:39 PM

    hahhaa I see sir- ISKCON grabbed the unwanted attention out here.Anyways.. on the amazing story .. Ask a corrupt - Need Money or Nirvana .. and you know the answer :D .. my owl interprets so :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 20, 2013 at 3:08 PM

      The advantage with allegories is that one can interpret it in a million ways. I'm happy I could elicit the natural that is very congenial to you.

      Delete
  8. SangrywordsAugust 20, 2013 at 7:43 PM

    I was hoping to read a gripping story ... but this one is brilliant :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 20, 2013 at 8:16 PM

      This could be one of the shortest stories you ever read :)

      Delete
  9. Ritesh AgarwalAugust 21, 2013 at 3:08 PM

    Hello sir. Actually like sangeeta said, i too felt there would be some short story ahead. But this one liner is subtle and far more effective.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 21, 2013 at 8:06 PM

      Sometimes a few words can convey much. Thanks, Ritesh. But I must acknowledge my debt to a Malayalam poet for this achievement.

      Delete
  10. UnknownAugust 21, 2013 at 7:19 PM

    LOL...people are more interested in petty things :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 21, 2013 at 8:08 PM

      May not always be petty, Pankti. Sometimes the interests can be lethal.

      Delete
    2. UnknownAugust 22, 2013 at 2:31 PM

      What seems lethal is not always lethal when you look at it from the macro level. At least, that's my observation has been until now.

      Delete
  11. SubrotoAugust 31, 2013 at 7:28 PM

    This is absolutely brilliant.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
19 comments
Read more

India in Modi-Trap

That’s like harnessing a telescope to a Vedic chant and expecting the stars to spin closer. Illustration by Gemini AI A friend forwarded a WhatsApp message written by K Sahadevan, Malayalam writer and social activist. The central theme is a concern for science education and research in India. The writer bemoans the fact that in India science is in a prison conjured up by Narendra Modi. The message shocked me. I hadn’t been aware of many things mentioned therein. Modi is making use of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Centre for Study and Research in Indology for his nefarious purposes projected as efforts to “preserve and promote classical Indian knowledge systems [IKS]” which include Sanskrit, Ayurveda, Jyotisha (astrology), literature, philosophy, and ancient sciences and technology. The objective is to integrate science with spirituality and cultural values. That’s like harnessing a telescope to a Vedic chant and expecting the stars to spin closer. The IKS curricula have made umpteen r...
8 comments
Read more

Joys of Onam and a reflection

Suppose that the whole universe were to be saved and made perfect and happy forever on just one condition: one single soul must suffer, alone, eternally. Would this be acceptable? Philosopher William James asked that in his 1891 book, The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life . Please think about it once again and answer the question for yourself. You, as well as others, are going to live a life without a tinge of sorrow. Joyful existence. Life in Paradise. The only condition is that one person will take up all the sorrows of the universe on him-/herself and suffer – alone, eternally. What do you say? James’s answer is a firm no . “Not even a god would be justified in setting up such a scheme,” James asserted, knowing too well how the Bible justified a positive answer to his question. “It is expedient that one man should die for the people, so that the nation can be saved” [John 11:50]. Jesus was that one man in the Biblical vision of redemption. I was reading a Malayalam period...
15 comments
Read more

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...
16 comments
Read more