In Tamil Nadu beef is not eaten and it was our favourite meat, but there was no way of getting it, it was available in one shop in the meat market but going there to buy meat turned one into a pariah in the community. So the malayaee Christians in Appan's office had devised a plan to get beef. Appan worked in the Indian railways sleeper factory and they were always testing sleepers by running train engines on them and Madras like all other Indian cities and towns were filled with stray cattle. Cattle entering the factory premises were strictly forbidden as during testing accidents could be caused, so if any entered the factory premises, no one dared to claim them.
This was used by the beefeaters as a pretext and they would run the cattle on to the track and have an engine run into it, effectively killing it and the engineers in the factory shared the meat. This worked well, especially because while trespassing was a crime it was a bigger and punishable crime for a cow to cause an accident by being on the track.
Well, this ensured that we had a steady supply of beef during our stay in Madras and as none of the locals knew we were not subjected to the sanctions a beefeater usually is
This was used by the beefeaters as a pretext and they would run the cattle on to the track and have an engine run into it, effectively killing it and the engineers in the factory shared the meat. This worked well, especially because while trespassing was a crime it was a bigger and punishable crime for a cow to cause an accident by being on the track.
Well, this ensured that we had a steady supply of beef during our stay in Madras and as none of the locals knew we were not subjected to the sanctions a beefeater usually is
No comments:
Post a Comment