preparing for bakri id

Today, on my way to one of my fieldwork sites (Govandi), I saw scores of men and children on the streets not far from the Govandi railway station walking around with goats. Quite many of them were holding small branches of leaves which the goats were happily munching on. Later someone told me that Bakri Id is on Saturday. Poor suckers... the goats... but at least they're enjoying their last meals. On the way back home, a rickshaw passed by mine and a man and his goat were in it. The goat was eating leaves from his hand. Tried to take a picture with my mobile phone and managed to get only a blurry photo.


Later I saw a maruti-van taxi with two goats in it. I think I'm going to be dreaming goats tonight.

My rickshaw-wala was in a philosophical mood and this is the exchange we had:

Rickshaw-wala (without my having said a word, but I guess he felt like sharing his thoughts): "Yeh tehevaar sab miljul kar manaate hai" ("Everyone celebrates this festival together").

Me (I didn't know what to say right away so I just repeated his words): "Sab miljul kar manaate hai?" ("Everyone celebrates it together?").

Rickshaw-wala: "Haan" ("Yes").

A minute later:

Rickshaw-wala: "Yahaan se kya le jaate hai?" ("What do you take from here?").

I thought he was asking me what I was taking from Govandi. For a second I thought that maybe he was wondering whether I had come to Govandi looking to buy a goat (who knows, maybe Govandi is the place to buy goats). But since I really didn't know why he was asking me that question, I dumbly repeated what he'd just asked me...

Me: "Yahaan se kya le jaate hai?"

Rickshaw-wala: "Kuch nahin. Kuch nahin saath me le jaate. Sirf bhai-chaara le jaate hai." ("Nothing. We don't take anything with us. We only take bonds of brotherhood.")

Thats when I realized he meant what do we take with us when we die... and I smiled at my stupid misunderstanding and said: "Haan." ("Yes")