THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: FM radio, especially Ananthapuri FM, seems to be ‘moosic’ for the twenty-odd cows that live, hold your breath, bang opposite Spencers and Sulaikha Textiles at Vellayambalam. Did I hear you mutter, what rubbish...cows on a commercial street! Believe it or not, Achuthan Nair and Leela Achuthan Nair, living at Sreenilayam on the Vellayambalam-Sasthamangalam stretch, have 24 cows living with them on a thirty-cent plot.There cannot be a happier lot of cows, with good food, automatic refilling of water buckets, fans in the barn to cool them (the Sindhi cows would otherwise wilt in the heat), nice showers spraying water from top for a cool bath and what’s more, FM music played throughout the day."There is an old saying in Malayalam that ‘Pashu, shishu, pampu’ (cows, infants and snakes) listen to music. I think the cows listening to music will have a calmness about them and so will their milk. And I believe that those who drink the milk will also be calm, without any cruelty in them,’’ says Leela, as she walks around the barn holding a stick to support herself.The couple, right from the time they got married, have been rearing cows, not as a source of income, but as a source of good quality milk. When they shifted to Vellayambalam from their native Nedumangad, they had four cows. Now with 24 cows, they give milk to as many customers as they can, including the Bishop’s House. "Even if we double the production here, we will not be able to meet the demand for pure milk. When people come and say that it is for little children, we sometimes cut down on our household needs,’’ says 84-year-old Achuthan Nair, who is known for the ‘Our’ colleges he started right from Nedumangad to Kannur.But if not for the queue of people right from 5.30 in the morning, no one would even have an inkling about the bovine life in their neighbourhood. No stink, no mosquitoes. "It’s all nonsense. Yohannan here washes the cows before milking and twice later. Besides, the dung is housed in a separate shed and the water that collects is channelised down the ground. We also burn coconut husk in the evening and the fumes keep the air pure. We never had any problems with mosquitoes,’’ says Achuthan Nair. True enough, for however hard we sniffed, we could not detect that typical cow-smell.Every cow has a name and you also find inseparables like Indu and Meenakshi, Sati and Savithri, Uthara and Chithira, and the trio of Rukmini, Sathyabhama and Radha. "The reason for the bonding is that they have grown up together, and had their pregnancies and childbirths almost at the same time,’’ explains Leela. Every cow has its own plate (read aluminium basins) numbered according to the quantity and quality of food needed.While the general well-being of the cows is being looked after by Achuthan Nair and his wife, all matters related to milk - right from its collection to distribution - is supervised by Achuthan Nair’s daughter Prathibha, who knows each and every bottle that comes for milk, whom it belongs to and how much quantity each customer needs. "The whole process is a combined effort of the family. Achan wakes up early in the morning and monitors the washing, feeding and milking of the cow. As soon as the milk starts coming in, I begin the distribution process. Amma and my sister-in-law take over after that. They look after matters of the cow dung too,’’ says Prathibha.Seven truckloads of cow dung is what is transported from Vellayambalam to the family-owned farms in Nedumangad. There was once a time when it was used for generating biogas. But space constraints made them give up the idea. Large dairy farms may not be a feasible option in land-strapped Kerala, but small units with around 10 cows would definitely meet the demand for pure milk, says octogenarian Acuthan Nair, relaxing back in his chair.
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