Smelly Goat, your time is coming

Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat,
What are they feeding you?
Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat
It's not your fault

-Phoebe Buffay

I will never eat mutton again, I promise. 

Actually, I don't have to promise that anymore. My doctor has instructed me not to eat mutton.

Why will I not eat mutton?

It's because I have two goats sitting outside my office. 

Bakri Eid is around the corner and it's tradition to stuff a goat kept at home with food and then slaughter it on the day of Eid. 

At least the guys who live in the room next to my office purchased the goats yesterday. There are families that raise goats since they are kids and then slaughter them after they have become family pets. 

But that is another story.

Coming back to our goats: they smell. They spend their entire day headbutting each other, drinking each other's piss (I swear that I am not making this up). Shitting while eating and smelling like barf mixed with shit. 

But then, you get used to the smell.

It's one of the various smells in Bombay that you get used to. Some of them include smog at Saki Naka, Mahim Creek, garbage dumps and shit mixing with sea water while you drive near the beach. Now a welcome addition is the goat during Bakri Eid.

Another thing that amuses me is that the kids want to play with the goat. A part of me wonders what they will think after it is slaughtered next Monday. Knowing a child, it will just be another memory. For the adult, it's part of tradition, so this tradition will be taught to the child as he grows older. 

What has it taught me? Given that I have a Gurudwara blasting loudspeakers outside my place and the fact that my neighbours sing hymns and bhajans on festive occasions, the smelly goats are another test of my religious tolerance. 

And funnily, despite the fact that I am anti-religion, I am fairly tolerant.

And that is a lesson smelly goats have taught me.

Oh yes, it's also taught me that I will never eat biryani again