Spice of Life | Under Billy’s watchful gaze, tale with a twist

Now, my host lives on a farm in rural Punjab and one evening, their neighbour who was a fellow agriculturist invited the whole family over for dinner. The food was fantastic, and my friend’s husband especially relished the mutton curry, which had been prepared painstakingly over a slow fire.

I was enjoying a winter Sunday lunch at a friend’s farm when post the meal, we decided to move to the veranda to soak in the sun and have a cup of coffee. As we walked out to relax on the garden chairs, I froze in my path, for staring right at me with its enormous eyes was the biggest goat I had seen. Panic-stricken I whispered to my hostess, “There is a goat in your veranda standing beside the coffee table.” “Oh yes, that’s Billy, don’t worry he’s used to people being in his space, come have some coffee while I share his story,” came the calm reply.

I was enjoying a winter Sunday lunch at a friend’s farm when post the meal, we decided to move to the veranda to soak in the sun and have a cup of coffee. (AFP)

Now, my host lives on a farm in rural Punjab and one evening, their neighbour who was a fellow agriculturist invited the whole family over for dinner. The food was fantastic, and my friend’s husband especially relished the mutton curry, which had been prepared painstakingly over a slow fire. He lauded the dish with such enthusiasm and praise that his host was quite taken in, and promised to send over some mutton for the family the next day. She narrated the story as follows.

The following afternoon, a pick-up Jeep came over ferrying a gift for us, with large brown eyes making a loud, continuous, bleating noise and a note accompanying it, “As promised this is for your dinner.” What followed was nothing short of commotion, the children of the house were overjoyed at the arrival of the new entrant, which very quickly turned into rage when they figured the animal had been sent over to be slaughtered. The youngest daughter planted herself firmly in front of the said animal, “Anyone who tries to harm Billy, will have to deal with me,” and thus we had a new house pet who had been christened ‘Billy’.

Billy the goat, did not like being tied up, which he expressed very vocally, especially in the afternoon when the family would be resting. So, it was decided he’d be allowed to roam around in the cow’s enclosure, which the bovines did not appreciate much. Soon, he got bored with the cows and their sedate lifestyle, and decided he wanted to accompany us out for our evening walk. One of the kids decided to leash up Billy and walk him alongside our dog, which, now confused the dog who started barking incessantly at Billy, who, in turn got spooked and head butted one of us, managed to get free of the reins, and headed straight for the house.

Once inside the house, he decided to explore the living quarters, and of course before anyone could stop him, he had entered the kitchen. This was like a child having free access to a candy store, he started with the vegetables, after munching mouthfuls of spinach and broccoli moved to the fruit basket, and finally discovered the confectionaries lying on the kitchen slab. Any attempt by the cooking lady to stop his expedition was met with severe resistance and the threat to use his horns as a weapon.

Over the next few months, Billy grew more and more stubborn and opinionated in his attitude as did his size, but every now and then, he’d snuggle up to one of us and sit patiently alongside our dog, while we would have our evening tea, waiting for a biscuit to come his way. He regularly accompanies us on our evening walks, but is way calmer, once he realised we weren’t going to harness him. But much to the disdain of the gardener, Billy enjoys chewing on any flowers that choose to bloom in the garden.

All this was narrated to me by my gracious hostess, under the watchful gaze of the subject at hand.

The writer runs an agri-tourism project in Hoshiarpur and can be reached at a.jasveen@gmail.com