“How are cattle born?” The teacher asked.
“When cattle sprout their legs, then we can say that cattle are born,” the child replied.
“Wrong,” barked the teacher.
Then, the teacher recited the following from the textbook,
“No one is born as cattle.
“Instead, first, one gets fifteen years of education, a job, a wife, a car and a television set.
“Then, in due course, as a child is born, and an household is set up.
“Thus, progress is duly achieved.
“Then horns begin grow on the head.
“Or else,
“They work in a factory or a field. Or even at a university or an office.
“They labor and struggle against difficulties.
“Together, they dream up revolutions.
“For all this too, as a reward, horns sprout on their head.
Hearing all this, the child was overcome with sorrow.
“Is there any way to avoid becoming a cattle oneself?” the boy asked.
“I don’t know,” replied the teacher as he scratched the tip of his horns.
[Original in Malayalam by O. V. Vijayan titled: ‘Kannukaalikal’
Translated by Keerthik Sasidharan]