Kalu’s feat

By T. M. Jeevananda De Silva

Solis was a carter in a sleepy coastal village in the South. He had a family of wife and five children and he earned a living with his bullock cart in the town about three kilometers away from the village.

Kalu was his bull and it contributed in no small measure to earn Solis his living. Early morning Solis feeds Kalu with poonac and straw and then feeds himself with whatever breakfast his wife Roslin has prepared and sets out to travel to the town in the bullock cart.

The journey takes about one hour and Solis never hurries Kalu to run faster. He never beats Kalu like other carters do to their animals and calls it in endearing terms like “Putha” and “Kalu”. The duo, Solis and his bull was a familiar sight to townsfolk, businessman and their customers.

Everyone preferred to hire Solis’s cart because he never charged exorbitant hiring fees. Besides everyone had noticed how kind Solis was to Kalu.

He used to pat and stroke the animal whenever heavier than normal loads were loaded on to the cart and Kalu too responded in equal measure by pulling the cart along dilapidated roads with potholes without being lazy or showing signs of tiredness. At the end of each hire Solis feeds Kalu with sheaf of straw and a bucket of water.

Solis was not a heavy drinker of alcohol. Once a week or so he used to drink one or two glasses of toddy at the town’s tavern and that too only if he got a good hire and some extra money.

Jamis was a friend of Solis and he worked in the town’s municipality. He was getting a fairly good income especially when he worked overtime hours. Once Jamis got a fairly big wage packet and he invited Solis to drink some toddy at the tavern. Solis agreed and the two friends started drinking,

After drinking for about one hour, Solis was stone drunk. Jamis sensed his friend’s plight and stopped drinking and accompanied Solis to his cart where Kalu was waiting patiently to get back home. Solis barely managed to get on to the cart and urged Kalu to start moving.

Kalu, probably sensed that his master was not in his proper senses by the absences of usual endearing terms. It started a low trudge back through the town in the direction of the village. After few minutes of travelling, Solis realized that he could no longer drive the cart and reclined on the deck of the cart and fell asleep.

Now Kalu the bull was in charge Solis’s journey back home. Townsfolk were watching in amazement when they saw that the bull was pulling the cart while the carter was lying in the cart, drunk.

Kalu was pulling the cart deftly avoiding all traffic and taking all the correct turns towards the village. The cart went past the bridge, the police station and the busy bazaar. Onlookers were laughing all the way at what they were seeing and some kids even applauded Kalu for his feat.

After about one hour’s travelling Kalu brought the cart back to Solis’s home and stopped in front of the house. Roslin saw the plight of Solis and immediately realized what had happened. With the help of her children she carried Solis into the house and put him on a bed. That evening Kalu received a larger than normal feed of poonac and straw from Roslin for its cleverness.

Later that night Solis party recovered from his drunken stupor and received a lengthy dressing down from Roslin. Being in a repentant mood he was heard commenting, ‘Roslin, even though Kalu is a bull he is smarter than me.”