Tangents
Cattle Market <i>Blues</i>
Decorated cow. Photo: Ihtisham Kabir
While it is hard to claim a special love for cattle markets, they are nevertheless unique places. The largest such markets assemble before Eid ul Azha and I recently spent some time in one in old Dhaka's Naya Bazar. I was there ostensibly to help my friend Tutul pick out a Bhutti cow. These rare miniature cows have tender meat. Another friend, Sami, had sent searchers to the city's cattle markets and had located them here. So the three of us showed up, and of course I had camera in hand. An Eid cattle market with many large angry animals and annoyed people searching for a satisfactory Qurbani can be a stressful place. There are several things to watch for. The most important is to avoid standing behind a cow. In particular, move quickly if the tail goes up as this indicates the cow is about to relieve itself. When you enter the market, you will probably step carefully avoiding the ubiquitous cow dung. However, you will soon realise the futility of this. Before the day is over, you will become immune to the sight and smell of dung as it will permeate your entire body. Tell yourself that dung is a Good Thing, and much of the food you eat today - vegetables, fruits, rice – owe their existence to dung. At least dung did not frighten me. Cows being moved from point A to point B were another story. A commotion behind with shouts of “Goru Ailo (cow coming!)” alerted me to this danger. When I turn around to investigate, I saw a gigantic cow, seemingly out of control, chasing two men who were allegedly leading it to point B. People were jumping pell-mell to get out of its way, and when I realised the cow was headed for me, for a split second I felt the excitement those people in Pamplona must feel during the “running of the bulls.” Then I jumped wide and landed in an ankle-deep puddle of dung. How to photograph in this excitement? Cows are visually boring, and the chaos made it hard to compose any decent photograph, but I was struck by the extraordinarily olourful decorations placed on the animals. Some cows had decorated horns, others had elaborate garlands around their necks, and still others had simple coloured paper stuck on their foreheads. While photographing, I spoke with several cattle salesmen. They wore glum looks as they told tales of low prices. For the days the market lasted, the sellers stayed next to their cows day and night. Their living conditions were miserable. Most of the sellers I met came from Kushtia which is a major cattle-producing region. The farmers buy immature cows and fatten them in their farms or homesteads. After the Bhutti cow was purchased, walking it back along the road was another adventure. The next day I returned alone for more photographs, but by then prices had fallen even more, and the previous day's festive mood – including cow decorations – was just a memory.
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