No milk today

Ma Ka Doodh (Mother's Milk)
Written, Produced and Directed: Dr Harsha Atmapuri

One of the important reasons for choosing breast milk over formula milk, which is formulated on cow's milk, is that cow's milk is for calves. Just like humans should be fed breast milk.

Calves drink milk when they are young. After a certain age, they start eating adult cow feed. And the mothers stop producing milk soon afterwards. Like calves, humans do not have to drink milk throughout their lives. But, no. We have been advised to include milk in our daily diet to ensure adequate calcium and other vitamins.

This documentary tries to convince us that the reality is far from this. The maker, a doctor turned animal activist, is trying to investigate the milk cattle industry around India on how it is run and how the cows are treated.

There is a concerted effort to criminally increase milk production manifold, much more than cows are actually able to produce in physiological situations. Profit is of paramount importance. It supersedes compassion and kindness. Everything is dollars and cents (or rupees and paise).

We tend to think that nothing can get purer than milk. Its pristine white hue gives it a special place in society that it is fit to be offered to the Gods. What the dairy industry does to cattle is more than cruel. During his lifetime, Gandhi made it a point never to consume cow milk due to the ill-treatment of cows. He only drank goat's milk throughout.

Firstly, only female calves are allowed to survive. Newborn male calves are just killed as they are useless in the cattle industry. Feeding them to adulthood for meat is just not economically viable. Nobody uses bulls for manual work. Tractors have taken over their place.

Cows grow up in restricted spaces, with no chance of roaming around to graze. They are fed in their sheds. Their sheds are poorly cleaned, and the animals live in deplorable conditions. By the way, they will never experience mating, as all procreations are via artificial insemination.

In the meantime, cattle owners sing praises of milk's nutritional and health values in cahoots with the media. As it stands now, milk plays such an essential role in our children's growth and adults' well-being that it is vital to survival. Interestingly, China has had similar benefits from soya milk. Plant milk is superior to cattle rearing from the perspective of leaving carbon footprints and greenhouse effects. Milk from soya, coconut, almond and oat are plant-based.

What happens to cows when they stop producing milk? The farmers would like to think that they are just sold off. In reality, the old cows are transported in the most inhumane manner across borders to states like Bengal and Kerala, where they are slaughtered, again in the most brutal ways, for their meat and leather. Intertwined in this imbroglio are buffaloes, their milk and meat.

There is enough legislation to curb all these issues. Unfortunately, the police and even cow vigilante groups are simply bought over by powerful cartels that control beef and leather production.

The maker of the documentary tells us that for a country that reveres cows and worships them, Indians are not doing enough. He suggests replacing cow milk with soya milk to allay cows' abuse and emotional torment. Unfortunately, the cow protection movement is intrinsically linked to Hindu-Muslim violence. People who oppose cow slaughter are erroneously assumed to be anti-Muslim. And Muslims purposely slay cows to trigger a negative response from the Hindus. 

Now we are in a predicament. We were told to refrain from consuming meat as the industry emits many noxious gases that damage the environment. Then they said, don't consume chicken and eggs as they were raised in battery coops. They had enough place to eat and shed, that's all. 

Then they told me to source organic food. Our vegetables were so tainted that if our coronary vessels do not clog up, the herbicides and pesticides sprayed liberally on the plants will kill us from cancer. 

Even if you opt for organic, we must worry about the seeds used. Generally, we are worried about GMOs, the genetically modified source. We are wary of whether these genetically modified seeds would alter our cell lines., turning us into monsters. 

They also tell us to consume less fish to keep overfishing under check. Increased demand leads to offshore fishing and the depletion of fish and sea life in our oceans. 

I have a funny feeling that all these are just Nature's way of fighting back. It wants to reclaim its territory and not surrender to the whims and fancies of mankind.  

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Beginning of life?

Sculpture depicting the churning of the ocean at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand

Now that everyone can fly, everyone has a chance to see the wonders of nature and man made structures near and far! A point in question is the mammoth man made structure in Swarnabumi airport in Bangkok. Incidentally, 'Swarnabumi' is a Sanskrit word meaning 'land of gold'. It was initially used by Indian traders to describe the strip of land protruding from the mainland of south east of Asia, i.e.peninsular of Malaya.

The giant elaborate structure depicts an event in Hindu scripture (Puranas) of Lord Vishnu's second avatar. It all started when the God of Sky (Indra) was given a garland by a passing sage. Indra placed on his elephant's trunk who threw it away because of the strong scent. The sage, angered by this action of throwing away God's offering, passed a curse rendering all the demi Gods and Devas powerless. (Hey! I thought saintly sages are supposed to be patient and able to control their animal emotions!)

Same story in Angkor Wat

Lord Vishnu joined forces with Lord Shiva to save the world as demons, with special powers acquired from Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva at different times were terrorizing. Lord Vishnu assumed his second avatar as a turtle assisted by Vasuki, a serpent and a mountain. They had to churn out the nectar of immortality from the Ocean of Milk to restore powers of the Devas. Vasuki became the churning rope, the mountain became the churning rod, Vishnu sat on the mountain to stabilize it. On the tail end of the serpent were the devas and the demons at the head. This process produced lots of toxic power which was engulf by Lord Shiva but it got stuck in his throat after the neck was clenched by his consort. Shiva became blue in the face but the toxin got permanently stuck in his throat. The end results of the churning were aplenty. Beside the nectar which was held by the divine physician who flew on giant bird, Garuda, other by-products were Lakshmi who became Vishnu's consort, thulsi plant and many more. Lord Vishnu had to disguise as a pretty maiden, Mohini, to steer the attention of the demon while Garuda scoots off with the nectar. Unfortunately, things became complicated when Lord Shiva also gets excited. That is another sub-plot on the evolution of the Ayyapa and the justification of same sex union in the Hindu religion.
At one look, all these may look like a fictional tale coined to entertain the masses at an era where there were no outlet of entertainment to spend those long winter nights. Others may say it denotes symbolism of our daily life - our eternal fight with our inner demons to bring out the best in us.
I would say it sounds very much like a 'Big Bang' theory. An explosion of sorts in Ocean of Milk (?Milky Way) emitting radioactive explosion resulting in production of many lives, planets and beings.
Just a point to ponder...

Sagar Manthan

http://hinduwebsite.com/churning.asp

One man's wastage is another man's economic stimulus!

Datuk Zainal Alam, senior RTM broadcaster,
entertainer, singer, and stand-up comedian.
© Star

Of late, they have been talks of unspeakable wastage of stream of milk filling the drains of Batu Caves all along the days surrounding Thaipusam. Money that otherwise can be used for the upliftment of the Indian Malaysian community is said to be literally down the drain.

Milk, as described by Datuk Zainal Alam, a fellow Penangite, comedian, entertainer extraordinaire, is the first and last thing consumed by humans and would not have been so much stature and reverence in life is not for its pristine white hue. Imagine a purple liquid called 'milk'! I digress...

Much has also griped about the humongous garland donned upon 'The First Lady' and her consort, which would have taken half an acre's yield, going to waste.

Ever since my language teacher in Form 1 (AA), told the class that we could not say the space expedition is a waste of money in our essay as money just changes hands, I took upon the idea. These acts of pouring gallons of milk, breaking grosses of coconuts, deflowering of plants to glorify idols are not usually a waste of resources. In fact, it stimulates economic activity. Dairy farmers, small plantation holders, florists, middlemen, transportation companies, and even labourers benefit tremendously from this sudden surge of demand. It would improve the production and distribution of these items. The philanthropic act is still done but people have to work for it - no handouts!

It is just like the Chettiars in the early history of our country. They were big landowners but were contented in keeping them idle for cows to graze and keep trespassers at bay. When the Chinese bought over the land when the British gave away independence and the Chettiars returned to their motherland, they started building supermarkets, factories, restaurants etcetera there. This had a snowball effect on related businesses and eventually these small and medium industries have now become the lynch pinch of Malaysia's economy. But then, these activities are still going to leave our carbon footprints of which our descendants will be cursing and trying to clean up. May all the worshipping now would help them then!