Delhiwale: Chhotu’s first winter

Baby goat Chhotu is just learning to walk this winter and his young owner ants to ensure that he gets the best of the world.

It stands to reason that you’d want to bundle up your baby goat on a cold morning in central Delhi.

Baby goat named Chhotu wearing the old cardigan of his owner. (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)

It’s also obvious that we would love to have a word with babe and mom, but as far as we know they wouldn’t grasp our babble.

The animals live with a homeless family that includes a young girl who says: “I gave the baby my old cardigan because his legs were trembling so badly.”

The babe was born parson raat (the night before yesterday), she continues, and his shaky legs aren’t just the result of morning chill: Little Chhotu is trying to figure out how to walk. The girl says that her father, a labourer, bought the mother goat called Shanno two years ago at Meena Bazaar. It’s a purchase they haven’t regretted.

Now the babe takes a few hesitant steps forward, ending up on the dusty pavement. Mother Shanno tries to help, but she’s tied to a fence.

When Chhotu finally gets up, he returns to Shanno and hides behind her legs.

Chhotu is still too young to eat fodder, the girl explains. “He feeds on mother’s milk.” Mother fervently licks her baby, who seems indifferent to all the fuss.