Enterprise in the time of Covid

In these bleak times, when all around us people are losing their jobs and having to take up occupations for which they’re vastly overqualified, it’s heartwarming to find some people taking the bull by the horns.

…Or the goat by the horns, actually. A Chennai-based friend posted an intriguing piece of news the other day. A gang of thieves stole two goats one night, and, several weeks later, stole 10 country chickens from a poultry shop. The police managed to find a CCTV feed which showed a 10-minute clip of the chicken theft. A luxury car—a sedan, no less—had pulled up at the poultry shop in the dead of night. It contained a man, a boy, a six-month-old baby, and a woman who held the back door open while the man shoved in the stolen chickens.

Why steal goats and chickens, my friend wondered. Surely people who own a big car can afford to buy meat or chicken? Or were they on some sort of DIY spree? Make your own biryani, from scratch? Literally scratch, too, I’d think; trying to slaughter those 10 chickens—and given that they were country chickens, probably robust ones, not the mild-mannered, half-doped urban hens—must involve a high risk of getting clawed.

Someone else suggested that these people were well-meaning animal activists, intent on saving (even if by illegal means) animals that were going to be slaughtered. I have a different opinion. I think these are actually the fledgling steps of a new enterprise. These people have perhaps suffered a serious drop in their incomes thanks to the pandemic, and what with two children to bring up, they need to shore up their finances. What better way than to set up a farm? Not much initial outlay either, if you steal the animals (or birds).

And even less expense (or chance of being blackmailed) if you hire no staff whatsoever, and get your children started young instead. Who knows, by the time their classmates will be slogging over their Class X Board exams, these kids will be owners of India’s biggest livestock farms.

Of course, there could be yet another explanation for these seemingly bizarre thefts. Perhaps these people are just so bored with staying at home, they can’t take it anymore. Netflix, podcasts, Zoom calls with friends and relatives: all has lost its charm. So they’re finding ways to energise themselves. Hoodwink the law, get a car ride with some livestock. (What fun! Did the baby get a ride on a goat?)

But I still veer towards the farm theory. The chicken feed and grain shops in Chennai better shore up their burglar alarms. 

Madhulika Liddle

Twitter: @authormadhulika

Novelist and short story writer