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KATHMANDU, MAY 25
i was a black goat, young, tall and handsome, living a blissful life frisking and prancing with my mother and siblings, grazing and munching on the fresh green grass on a hillock that my master would lead us to cautiously. I continued to graze and graze on the healthy green growth for a year or so until one day, a stranger arrived, and my master handed me over to him.
The stranger scanned and sized me up with his wicked eyes, his filthy cracked hands running over my body. He held my horns aggressively, looked at my face as if I were a girl and felt my testicles, almost squashing them. I did not want to leave my family, so the vicious-looking man dangled me by a noose around my neck, threw me into an old Tata and drove me away.
After arrival in Kathmandu, they threw me into a dark and dingy room. I was scared like hell, and my body ached from standing on a rocking Tata.
They also threw me some dry hay, which I mistook for a mattress.
I tried to lay down on it; a few more bodies moved, tugging at the straw. So, I was not alone in the dark. However, the look in their eyes in the dark scared me. They looked like they had lost love for life and looked more like zombies.
I did not have to wait long for my moment of truth at a temple.
Some put red vermillion powder on my head and face, gave me a spoonful of grains and flowers to eat, and sprinkled water on my face and butt so that I could shake off water for the journey into the unknown.
I still did not know the meaning of all these. One told the priest that I had already shaken off the water, after which the priest gave him an ancient but sharp instrument, ritually purified. The man looked at the purified knife, felt the sharp edges with his finger and ordered a few members to bring me inside. They grabbed me tightly as if they were going to squash the life out of me. I bleated in pain. The man who had the instrument in his hand took my head and pulled it back forcefully, slashing my neck. I was dying out of pain, blood splashing over the divine statues.
I could hear a man saying, "I cannot watch this."
I was writhing in pain, half of my neck still attached to my body, and more men joined in cutting my tongue, legs and tail.
Finally, they took me around the temple three times for my emancipation from my life. By then, I had drifted into unconsciousness.
Everyone seemed hungry and wanted to roast the best part of me for a hurried meal.
All relished my meat except one, who looked out of place. In the evening, he ate his feast silently because he could not do anything to save me. All others ate my meat with great gusto, and I swore that I would bring them the same pain that they meted out to me.
