Serving up garbage

The recent drive by the BBMP to enforce strict rules towards disposal of garbage to make Bangalore a clean city, takes my memory back to my stay at Fort Kochi near Ernakulam, five years ago.

Fort Kochi is a well known tourist spot in Kerala with picturistic backwaters, luxury boat rides, visits of foreign ships such as Queen Victoria and of course, availability of ‘snacks’ from local peddlers. It is one of the dirtiest areas in Kerala, with left-overs strewn all around from a dozen makeshift hotels. The place is also an abode for hundreds of dogs and cats which thrive on left-overs, mostly non vegetarian stuff, and stale fish that are thrown out by the fisherman from their nets.

There are also several groups of goats that are pure vegetarians, trying to survive by sieving out the vegetarian stuff from the garbage. This is the only place where the cats, dogs, goats, cows , eagles and crows live in perfect harmony eating their respective menus without any fight. Due to continuous scavenging by hordes of these animals day in and out, majority of the garbage disappear into their stomachs.

The place is further marred by endless posters of movies that are screened in the nearby areas and posters of political parties announcing forthcoming meetings. Although the corporation makes no attempt to clear the garbage, one of the annoyances, the posters, are regularly removed by the four legged animals – the goats. The goats, probably attracted by the smell of the ‘maida paste’ nibble around and tear the posters in minutes.

The tallest goat stretches to full length on the wall nibbling the highest part of the poster while the smaller ones stretch out and nibble on various parts depending upon their height. In no time the entire poster is brought down and shared by all the goats without any fight. In fact if the posters are very large, the goats don’t mind sharing few pieces with some cows who stand behind them in anticipation.

Each group of goats target a particular poster and never interferes with other group’s activities. However, I could never make out whether a particular group of goats targeted posters based on their dislike at the sight of the personalities - Mohanlal, Mammootty or any local politician or whether they target based on “ first seen, first served” basis.

I have never seen anyone including the aggressive staunch supporters of the political parties or the die hard fans of Mammotty or Mohanlal driving away these goats for demonstrating gross sacrilege on their revered icons. Since most of the posters are eaten by late evening, the next day provides fresh job opportunity for the poster makers, poster pasting boys, ‘maida’ sellers, cycle hiring shop etc, providing at least 10 perpetual jobs throughout the year — all through the grace of these innocuous creatures.