Of horse-trading and sundries!

One ‘issue’ that invariably crops up during an election season in this blessed land is ‘horse-trading’. The question that presents itself begging for an answer is: why, of all the myriad living beings, zero in on the horse? Given humankind’s well-known propensity to be less than kind to other species, why select one that is one of the most gentle if not the friendliest for derision of this ilk?

One wonders if the readers have ever met a person who looked uncannily like a horse. Several experts have expressed their considered opinion that the constant company of certain animal species leaves an indelible mark on an individual. Some experts even go so far as to aver that persons who live too closely around certain animals ultimately end up resembling them.



Over the ages, man has been rather close to the horse and vice versa. That phenomenon may explain how certain internationally-known personalities have been remarked as having developed definite equine attributes over a period of time. One can hardly miss it. A certain well-known member of the British Royalty is an outstanding example.

And while on this subject, why confine one’s attention merely to the equine species? Man has hardly ever accorded to the other species the consideration they deserve! If wishes were horses beggars would ride, as they say!

Literature through the ages has run riot in so far as man’s relationship with the rest of the species on the planet is concerned. While describing a character in one of his books, the inimitable P G Wodehouse wrote, “He looked more like a parrot than most parrots do.” Wodehouse was, of course, being facetious as was his wont, but one would not class his remark as entirely flippant. It is not at all unusual for humans to have uncanny resemblance to members of other species. Some would do so physically, others in mannerism and still others in their very nature.

Field Marshal Rommel was popularly known as the ‘desert fox’ and not without justification. Similarly, a person may be described as ‘slimy as a serpent’. Rodents are particularly popular animals in the writers’ quest for homologues. A particularly low category of person, for instance, gets the epithet of a ‘rat’. The devastating role played by ‘moles’ in the field of espionage need hardly be over-emphasised. In the contemporary world — when kiss-and-tell books are very much in vogue — publishers and writers can hardly be faulted for being constantly on the lookout for ‘moles’ of another genre!



A person may be praised as being ‘lion-hearted’ or — on the other end of the spectrum — possessing the heart of a chicken. The poor peacock has to suffer the ignominy of being considered the embodiment of vanity. Insects, surprisingly, have had the best press of the lot. The ant is constantly extolled by all and sundry as being an exemplary worker. The bumblebee has received top billing as one that is ever so busy! Even the lowly grasshopper has not garnered such a bad billing at all.

Humankind prides itself on being the exalted of the species. That may sound well in theory. One is justified in asking, though, what has man done lately to merit that lofty attribute? Man is known as a ‘rational animal’ and yet emerges as the species committing the most irrational of acts. Man condemns what he derisively terms ‘the law of the jungle’, yet mankind’s own moral codes are hardly anything to write home about.

Harking back to the subject at hand, there is no justification why man be permitted to classify humankind’s own unethical shenanigans as, of all things, ‘horse-trading’? Why are we shy in admitting that we humans are ever ready to sell ourselves and our conscience? Surely the horse, a gentle and graceful creature, deserves better.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2018.

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