Gowri and Chintu

Gowri, the cow was in great pain. It could not move its legs, it hardly could breathe right. Tears ran down from its eyes in a steady flow. It refused to drink, it refused to eat, even its most favorite of green leaves.

Gowri was a beautiful cow, that minded its own business for most of the time, scouting for good grass, eating them, chewing them with great relish. It would come home, get milked, giving away its milk to its owners. They would sell the milk each day. The house relied on Gowri for milk and many more things.

Her urine was collected and given to a local doctor,It had medicinal properties. The cow dung was used to make dung cakes that could be burnt as fuel. Also her dung was used as manure in the fields.

The house was worried, Chintu the young kid was the most worried of all. She loved the cow very much. Her favorite pastime was to sit with the cow and sing songs to it. The cow would listen to her with the greatest of patience. The doctor came to see both Gowri and Chintu in tears. The doctor examined Gowri and said, we need to take her to the hospital now. She needs an operation. The family lived with meagre means, they had little money for the operation

Chintu broke her piggy bank and ran behind the doctor. "Here, take the money and save my Gowri".

During the operation, the made a small cut near the stomach of Gowri, Gowri howled in pain as layers and layers of plastic had been accumulated in her stomach for years.

They found small bags, straws and much more plastic junk, collected in her gut, stopping the flow of food in her digestive tract.

So many bags, one after another like it was some magic trick came out of her stomach. At the end of the operation, twenty kilos of plastic that had been accumulated in her stomach was removed.

The doctor said, "most of us throw away plastic bags after using them once, stuff them with vegetable leftovers, food leftovers. The cows eat the green vegetables along with these covers, they get stored in the stomach blocking the way. Cows like Gowri have no voice to tell us to stop using plastic. They cant tell us their pain. They just suffer in silence."

Chintu, vowed that "From then on, she would never use plastic covers again. She would tell the story of Gowri to every kid in the village, make sure their cows did not suffer in silence"