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This goat loves a fag
SHANKAR BANJARA, the guard at Satyam cinema, has a strange smoking companion for past seven months - his one year-old pet goat Raja, which is a deft smoker and gets drawn to smoke like bees to a flower.
SHANKAR BANJARA, the guard at Satyam cinema, has a strange smoking companion for past seven months - his one year-old pet goat Raja, which is a deft smoker and gets drawn to smoke like bees to a flower.
But who got the goat into smoking? The smokers and the City roads of course! Funny it may sound, but it is true. Raja’s initiation into the world of smoking began with construction of Manikbag overbridge when it innocently roamed around Manikbag Road.
It would see the dust rising from construction work of the bridge and service road and people puffing out similar thing. This resemblance somewhat struck him. And then, there would be people who would lovingly draw him close while smoking. Shankar, a Banjara tribesman, too had this habit.
Raja slowly became a passive smoker and began to enjoy the whiff of puff till some people went a step ahead and thrust a cigarette in its mouth. And lo, Raja took a drag and released it with perfect ease. The word caught on and people who knew Shankar began sharing cigarettes with him.
The goat now smokes regularly and has adopted this human habit to an inhuman extent. He loves to inhale the dust that rises from construction activity, thinking that it is the same as what emanates from the piece of rolled tobacco.
“I had to drag him away from construction site of Manikbag overbridge. He would see the dust rise, reach there and open his mouth. This is now a habit with him,” 55-year old Shankar told Hindustan Times.
There is another strange habit, recalls Shankar. His pet prefers humans to animals. Says he, “Raja plays with my friends and family. I have never seen him in the company of goats or any other animal. He acts like humans in some ways.”
But Banjara doesn’t repent what Raja has picked up. “I smoke too, how can I stop him from enjoying it. It will be difficult now to make him give up the habit,” Shankar exclaimed. However, what Shankar has given up is the idea to sell off Raja, especially when goats are in high demand for Bakri Id to be observed next week. He says he won’t sell it even if he receives an offer of Rs 20,000.
The saga of Raja doesn’t stop here. It also loves bhang but unlike his human friends, the four-legged creature doesn’t go crazy. The drugged Raja always remains in senses and walks with steady gait. His eating habits, thankfully, are normal. It enjoys chewing green leaves, gram and wheat like other goats.
Banjara and his wife, who love goats, have four daughters and two sons. The family had half a dozen goats but they were lost to thieves one by one. Raja is the lone survivor.
