The garlanded buffalo

As a rule of thumb, public service delivery affects the public and animals. For instance, when services provided to humans are efficient and productive, animals also benefit, albeit slightly. Conversely, the situation becomes intriguing when services are selectively delivered on political connections or as a courtesy. In Interior Sindh, most services are offered this way. This results in uneven, selective and politicised development. Regardless of the acceptance of such practice in the area, certain things and events challenge our nascent logic and long-held beliefs.

Recently, a friend's buffalo was stolen by armed thieves during the night in interior Sindh. Initially, he sought the help of a cattle tracker, locally called payree, to track the whereabouts of the cattle. Also, he desperately leveraged feudal, tribal and ethnic connections and sought judicial intervention.

Desperation finally drove him to seek help from the police. The official, aware of the people's agonies and perpetrators' actions, initially engaged in a back-and-forth with denials and excuses. Later, it was only through the legal-cum-financial formalities and traditional chai-pani that the law was set in motion with the filling of a non-cognisable (NC) report against yet unknown thieves. While seemingly insignificant in traditional thana culture, the NC formally brought the issue to the official's attention and renewed the victim's hope.

Two weeks later, the official called the victim to his thana where the latter was greeted by the former with "congratulations". Hearing the word, the victim felt among the lucky few whose stolen property had been recovered without paying a bribe to intermediaries or thieves. However, the victim's happiness, like the cold cup of tea served to him at the police station, turned out to be fleeting.

The victim's gratitude for the tea was met with a revelation about the underlying details of the facilitation. The official claimed to have sought the mediation of an influential pir and feudal warlord in tracing the whereabouts of the cattle (and the lost tribal esteem). However, the official hinted that the same could be restored with a redemption fee to whoever had taken the risk in the dead of night. Upon learning the amount, the owner initially wavered but reluctantly agreed - more for his lost tribal reputation than the buffalo. Also, the official sought his gratitude for successfully brokering the "deal" before setting the deadline for the payment and the recovery of the cattle. With sorrowful delight, the owner bade farewell with the promise of paying the redemption fee to the designated tribal "influential" before or on the assigned date.

While commuting back to his home on a loader owned by one of his neighbours, he preoccupied himself with thoughts of arranging the sum and paying it well before the deadline if he aimed to regain the self-esteem he thought he had lost on the night of the theft. However, his desperation grew as he reflected on the question of arranging the amount. Immediately after arriving home, he called his friends whom he had helped and was always proud of, but in vain. Hapless and hopeless, he sold the cow that he loved and had bought with much labour. Thereafter, besides paying the amount, he also hung cash garlands around the necks of himself, the official and the recovered buffalo and had the event photographed.

When asked about the need to take pictures and garland the official in addition to the chai-pani and redemption amount, he described it as "insurance" for future "recoveries" and a way to motivate and publicise the official's generous and gallant act.

As the friend narrated the story and victoriously left, I questioned myself about the ultimate victims of the theft. Were they the thief, the intermediaries, the garlanded defender(s), the friends, the judiciary, the owner's self-esteem, the baffled buffalo standing with the owner in the picture, the tagline of the picture reading 'another recovery after yet another successful police encounter', the systematically cultivated public ignorance, or the patrons of the imposed chronic status quo? Perhaps everyone and everything in the beloved country, except for the denary.