After 11 long years, a large number of cattle and horses, originating from different parts of Pakistan, arrived in Lahore last week for a rerun of the nostalgic Horse and Cattle Show. It was both comforting and terrifying to see how so much has remained unchanged since the last bovine and equine ‘catwalk’ at the fortress stadium. It was comforting because many saw the Horse and Cattle Show as the revival of a forgotten tradition; terrifying because antiquated antics transposed the audience back to the early 90s, which felt like we had regressed in every possible way.
Still, credit must be given where it’s due: logistical support, security and VIP protocol were all unquestionably precise. The invitation came with a car sticker which indicated where exactly to park and that saved us from the anxiety almost innate to a large scale public event. Also, there were more khakis, blue uniforms and protocol officers than civilians. Ensconced in a sea of armed men, I wasn’t sure whether to feel secure or insecure – the only precaution one could take was to sit some place close to the exit.
Thankfully, the show was uneventful, in that there was no sign of any violence or mishap, apart from the time when some of the rowdy horses and sheep refused to maintain queue, and the time when the host of the show lost his voice, actually more than once, as though he had gone back to his pubescent days, and finally the time when a lady wearing high heels tried to negotiate a steep set of stairs on her way into the VIP enclosure and she tripped and knocked three scrawny, tea serving waiters on her way down and then miraculously got up despite several broken glasses and kettles and men and hurried off to fix herself up so that she could watch the rest of the show.
After all the spontaneous action we had witnessed, by the fag end of the show, when a clown ‘risked his life’, jumping up and down on a moving motorbike, the audience barely managed to part with a yawn or two. The clown was neither horse, nor cow, bull, goat, camel or cattle of any kind. He really didn’t belong in a Horse and Cattle Show and if the organizers thought this was the ‘edge’ they introduced after 11 years of moratorium, they must deliberate some more before the next show.
In sharp contrast to the clown, there were other acts that were also not related to anything bovine or equine, but entertaining nonetheless. This included the clockwork like precision of the colonial looking Rangers Marching Band, German Shepherds of the Army Dog Centre, trained as watch dogs, jumping through various obstacles including hoops of fire, and finally the Irish hounds chasing a mechanical rabbit in the backdrop of an incredibly sanguine, jingoistic jingle, ‘iss parcham kay sayay talay, hum eik hein, hum eik hein’, translating to, ‘under the shade of this flag (Pakistan’s flag), we are one’. Amidst the award winning, record breaking cow from Sahiwal that gives 39 liters of milk a day, it was fascinating to see how an Anglo centric marching band, German watch dogs and Irish bloodhounds were incorporated into a unified cause for national pride. If it really was a free for all nationalities, why not invite some elephants from India as a sign of our goodwill and maybe some Pandas from China since we are already collaborating with the Chinese on so many other causes for ‘national pride’, like ports, bridges, highways, power plants and what not.
Alas, the final nail in the coffin, as they say, was not just the poor choice of exhibits but the manner in which they were conducted. Exceptionally tall, hairy and well developed ‘school children’ danced to cultural folk music from each of Pakistan’s six provinces. Each province was represented by 49 boys and half as many girls. While the boys displayed a wide array of dancing moves, the girls held hands and moved sideways in a circle. This demarcation might appear as an insignificant nothing to many, but really it’s just another manifestation of the widespread gender inequality in our country, which is as scary and regressive as the antiquated-clown-on-the-motorbike act.
The main idea behind a Horse and Cattle show should be to enhance the collaborative potential of the livestock industry; to connect buyers and sellers; to exchange lessons on best practices and to find ways and means of improving breeding, upkeep and the ultimate yield of various livestock. Instead, we subject our animals to rigorous forms of obedience training so that they can dance before VIPs and diplomats on cue. On March 12, 1962, when the first lady of the United States, Mrs. Kennedy attended the ninth Horse and Cattle show in Lahore, the same horses and camels danced to the rhythm of indigenous folk music. The recent rerun of the exact same act shows that dancing horses are part of a deep-rooted tradition that is likely not to break and perhaps it shouldn’t since it is unique to our agrarian legacy. Having said that, livestock farmers across Pakistan need to understand that progress lies elsewhere.
The Dairy Rural Development Foundation, an organization working towards the sustainable increase of livestock productivity, identifies Pakistan as the third largest producer of milk in the world and has proven (within the gambit of its own project) that yield for each small-scale dairy farm can be improved by at least 15 percent through a basic set of best practices. The Foundation trains actual farmers in these best practices, some of which include untying livestock, improving the quality of fodder, making clean water available to livestock at all times, bathing livestock, disinfecting their teats, de-horning them and utilizing only the best seeds for reproduction through artificial insemination. And these are just the basics.
Today, the dairy industry contributes to 11% of the national GDP and considering the lack of knowledge regarding best practices, there is enormous potential for growth; growth that must be systematically planned in parallel to the many highways, flyovers, metro buses and other infrastructural projects the government has heavily invested in.
All this reminds me of a nursery rhyme I had all but forgotten: ‘All the King’s horses and all the King’s men, couldn’t put Humpy together again’. Exactly my sentiments on the Horse and Cattle show.