Bakar Eid

First time ever, I witnessed the sacrificial rituals of Bakar-eid today in its details. Streets washed in blood, the intestines of cows stacked in a corner one on top of another like tightly packed sacks, heaps of goat/sheep/cow/buffalo skins every 20 mts, people carrying intestines on scooters, dragging skins along, their clothes splashed with animal bloodstains, trucks being loaded and smaller vehicles being unloaded with what was throbbing with life a while ago. And in the middle of this, there were animals still to be slaughtered, being dragged from one place to another, or living the last moments of their majestic glory: a huge he-goat, a massive bull, and many such. One moment, a living being to proudly display, another moment, chopped pieces of flesh, a skin to be sold, an intestine lying dead with many other, intestines.

I know there are easy ways to be disgusted with these snapshots and look away. But on the other hand, there is an obvious indifference to the life of the 'other', not easy to reconcile with. Arguments for or against non-vegetarianism can be kept aside, but there is indeed something disturbing about a festival of such indifferent massacre. There is nothing against muslims in my outlook here, I am told there are Hindu festivals too where sacrifice exceeds normative scales. I have no answers to the questions I am facing. But I am also averse to reaching out to easy conclusions, conclusions that are merely individualistic and overlook the very conception of collective-selves. Spare/share a thought, if you will.