Shaktiman

Have been following the beating up of a horse in Dehra Dun. BJP, MLA, the honourable Ganesh Joshi in a collective fury beat up a horse, broke its leg, the horse kept quiet; the honourable Ganesh Joshi, as usual, denied it, just about coming close to claiming his kissing Shaktiman, the horse. Today, The Indian Express reports PTI from Dehradun: 'Police horse Shaktiman, ...had its injured hind leg amputated in an emergency life-saving surgery ...The surgery was conducted at a veterinary hospital here by a team of doctors led by surgeon Feroze Khambatta, hours after Army doctors from Pune gave their opinion that one of the hind legs that was fractured will have to be amputated. The animal otherwise might die by Friday due to spread of gangrene from the wound, they opined.' The surgeon seems to be a Parsi and well it could be as Parsis are generous souls; he may be into 24x7 nursing of the horse at the hospital. Shaktiman will take a month to get back on three or four feet? Thank you, PTI reporter and The Indian Express; perhaps, the PTI reporter should interview Shaktiman, who reminds me of the white horse, Amitabh dreams up in Zanjeer; it will be interesting to talk to a silent, hurt horse; none has written a third edit on a horsey happening, a horse hurt for unhorsey reasons and lucky to be Shaktiman, the police horse, as none would have cared for any other horse. Luck is a must for animals, maybe why Shaktiman seems not to talk; not all the TV debating shows will urge Shaktiman to open up. Some grace. In the 70s, The Statesman, Calcutta would have written a first edit and M.V. Mathew in the Times of India, a famed third edit, puffing non-filtered Panama cigarettes; Adil Jussawalla mentions M.V. Mathew in an essay -- Kill that nonsense term --- 'the public's favourite third edit writer, the late M.V. Mathew. On Eksar Road, in the mornings, stand friends of Shaktiman with their owners, mostly Muslims, looking 75 per cent hungry, belonging to the Below the Poverty Line category; in the afternoons, the horses are employed  to carry Gujarathi and Marwari bridegrooms; if not, Jain saints on festivals; and sometimes, the owners speed them on cemented Link Road, racing cars and bikes; never are the horses left alone, not even when munching dry grass from their jute bags; sometimes they chat, a hoarse chat, me on morning walks; most of them have a coin-sized grudge: the aged women and men of Borivili feed crows, house sparrows, stray cats and dogs, but never us, a horse...some carry-over sin from a previous birth. They have heard of Shaktiman, ponder his future; perhaps, Dehradun policemen will give Shaktiman a patch of resting green .. as three legs cannot do much. Maybe, Feroze Khambatta will adopt Shaktiman? Hope The Indian Express furthers the cause with a Third Edit.