The Real Cowboy!

 

 

The Real Cowboy

In the military stud farm where I worked, major work force used to be the non-combatant syce who spent all their life taking care of horses. Over the years, the more intelligent amongst them used to gain a lot of veterinary knowledge by observing and assisting us officers in our work. Karan Singh, my Head syce or Daroga was one such wise old man.

He would take a hard look at a mare in severe colic and pronounce – “Yoo, raat nahi kaategi”. During post mortem exam of a dead horse he would prophesize – “ Iska pate fata milega”. Sometimes he would surprise me by using scientific jargon like “ Isme Diaphragmatic Hernia ya Congestive Heart Failure ho sakta hai”!

The other day I was observing that there was a high incidence of illness amongst our syces and their families. Almost all households were having a serious case who needed to see a doctor regularly and this was hampering our work. The Daroga nodded thoughtfully and added “ meri gharwali ko bhi bahut saal se “microbrain” ki shikayat hai”.

Now, my vet brain immediately sifted through all my bookish and practical knowledge of past 25 yrs but could not make any sense of the disease condition. I had met his wife a number of times and she seemed to me to be an active, cheerful lady who I knew worked as a house keeper in a government primary school. So I finally asked Karan Singh “ tumhara matlab “migraine” hai kya?

And to my relief he said “Haan haan wohi”!