Exhausted by Covid-19 duty, several policemen across Madhya Pradesh have applied for leave on various grounds. One stands out for its bizarreness. A constable, posted as driver with the 9th battalion of Special Armed Force in MP’s Rewa, has cited ‘love for his buffalo’ as one of the two reasons for seeking six days’ leave. The other is his mother, who he spends just one and a half lines on, and gushes on and on about the buffalo. “It was the buffalo’s milk that helped me clear the police recruitment and now it is my time to repay,” the constable has written to his commandant. He has become the talk of the department — and the town — after his leave application went viral.