We often read and watch legendary stories of love and friendship in fiction. But a real-life example of this emerged from Tamil Nadu’s Madurai district recently – not between people, but a bull and a cow. The two bovines’ apparent affection for each other forced many people in the state to help reunite them.
On Monday morning, moving visuals from Palamedu in Madurai went viral, showing a desperate black bull circling an open lorry over and over again. The bull is sticking its snout through grills of the carrier to reach a white and brown cow, standing inside, on the carrier. The cow is clearly going to be transported, and is looking at the bull as well but is unable to step out of the vehicle.
The bull grunts in agitation, unable to reach its friend. It keeps pacing around the vehicle, looking at the cow. And when the lorry begins to move, the bull starts to chase it, unwilling to part with the cow.
"The cow in this video is Lakshmi and she belonged to my family for the last four years," says Manikandan from Palamedu. "We were struggling financially because of the lockdown and decided to sell Lakshmi to a milk farm. We were transporting Lakshmi on July 12 afternoon at around 1 pm and the village bull came in search of it," he adds.
Manjamalai, the temple bull had only been playing and interacting with Lakshmi for over a week, says the cow's owner. But the two had already formed a friendship.
"Manjamalai came running to stop Lakshmi from leaving and kept walking around the vehicle. When we finally started the vehicle and left, Manjamalai ran for one kilometre behind us to not let Laskshmi go," says Manikandan. "It was really heartbreaking for us to watch," he adds.
And he wasn't the only one touched by Lakshmi and Manjamalai’s friendship after Lakshmi was taken to a farm in Thoothukudi district. Residents across the state who saw this video, and soon began contacting Manikandan.
Watch Manjamalai trying to reach Lakshmi -
"People who saw the video and saw the news and even well-to-do families in my own town told me they will give me the money for Lakshmi and to bring her back." says Manikandan. "The current owner is asking for Rs 40,000 to give Lakshmi back to me. We will be able to go get her as soon we get at least a part of this money.
"We only did this due to our own financial constraints," adds Manikandan. "We are happy to bring Lakshmi back," he says. He adds that Manjamalai, who has been morose and hasn’t eaten since Lakshmi was taken away, will be happy to have Lakshmi back too.