The Red bull with one eye -------------------------------------by Uddalak Banerjee------------------------------------------It was Sunday afternoon; I was sitting alone

in the room at West View Apartments, Pune. The Television was switched on and an IPL match was going on between Kolkata Night Riders and Chennai Super Kings. Suddenly and quite impulsively I pressed the remote button to increase the volume. The channel got shifted from 210 to 211. A bull fighting match was going on. The bull was injured in one eye and was bleeding profusely. The matador was constantly switching positions and fiercely trying to cling on to the horns of the bull .However the bull was strong and was jumping up again and again trying to upset the matadors hold. The bull was stretching hard and soon succeeded to loosen the matadors grip . The matador fell from its back and it soon penetrated its thick sinewy horns into his chest. The scene became gory .I pressed the back button and came back to 210. By that time Kolkata had lost its 7th wicket and Dhoni was congratulating his bowlers. But then the face of that bull with blood splashed on its face was a sight that lived on somewhere within me.

Mr Burman ,my teacher from school often used to say, The winner is one who lives on at the end after and through the times which are demanding , the loser is one who fails to do so and dies off sooner than the winner. . He used to say on life and death that , To kill someone is wrong at one time and yet justified in another, there is no fixed frame of reference or a fixed format of right and wrong ,instead it is all relative. To try to join oneself with the divine line is the way to peace. . He also used to say something on the cycles. He used to say, Everything in life happens in a cycle. You live in continuum and then start with a birth and then grow up and then die and again go back to continuum. No matter can ever be created but only recycled. . He used to say that newtons law is valid for life toowhich was for every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. You do wrong to a person, it gets accumulated and multiplied by child simplicity factor and then the net sum gets transmitted in his wrong doings to others. Once the equality is reached between wrongs suffered (both due to deeds by others, birth deficiencies, lack of knowledge or way of expression) and additive wrongs committed to others through numerous transactions .Integration from start to end over every activity (known and unknown) decides the end. In school I used to find this concept of life and death rather fascinating and always wished to know the great eternal cycle. His explanation I found most appropriate and complete.

Life after that day in West View Apartments simply moved on. With the rush of life I too was running along with it. Then one day at the end of monsoon , in one week end , I was returning from College( XLRI Jamshedpur ) to my home in Kolkata .I found a huge jam near Park Street . Queue of cars were all standing for a long time. I initially thought it must have been some problem of water logging since it was monsoon and Kolkata was known to have such problems frequently. However, my opinion was soon changed when I found a stream of terrified people running around the street . Some were shouting, Run! Run fast!. It is coming !!!. My cab driver peeked out of the window shield and tried to enquire about the matter to the rushing

steam of people. Most did not stop to answer however one of the elderly gentlemen shouted back, There is a fat mad bull on a rampage in front of the signal . I was shell shocked and knew not what to do. I first thought of opening the cab door and run outside but then the cab driver, an elderly man insisted that going outside wont be safe because bulls perceive anything that is moving so until and unless we move we are safe. The sound of tantrums were growing louder and louder as if some monster was drawing near. I asked the cab driver, why the hell does the police dont call some animal hunter or zoo authorities?. He did not respond and instead asked me to shut up and put my head down. The bull drew near. Its warm breathe made a stertorous sound. It was more like a vibrating engine of a car which has been started but is static and waiting for the gear to come to motion. Both me and the driver were trembling in fear. The car was so placed that both in front and behind there were a row of cars. On the right hand side however there was a narrow side walk . The driver keeping his engine off was trying to change the direction of wheels by using the steering. The bull in the meantime has moved passed our car . Suddenly, in an instant of fitful adventure the driver switched on the engine and putting the car in the second gear pushed the accelerator. In an instant the car took motion and jumped up on the sidewalk. The starting sound and sudden movement drew the attention of the bull and it ran back towards us and put penetrated its horns on the side of the car. I looked down from the glass at its face trying to gauge whether it is going to be freed in an instant or not. And to my awe I found that it had only one eye!. My mind switched back over time and fear filled my senses .The side walk was small but in spite of his experience , the driver failed to realize that . He jumped out of the car and started running. The bull realized it by his motion and pulled its horn out of the car and chased him. He quickly got hold of the nearby wall and jumped up. But such was its ferocity and monstrous power , it broke through the concrete wall with its huge horns . I was watching the entire episode from the car glass pane. It was like watching a live tv and being part of a bull fight. The picture of the dead matador kept

flashing in my eyes. And immediately I heard a gunshot. The driver and the bull both lay on the floor. I looked back and found that a group of armed people have assembled at a distance. I wasted no time to jump out of the car and run towards them. A tall dark person moved towards me and asked , Are you ok ? It did not hit you na? IF it did tell us, there are medics in that cab. . I said, I am ok but the driver .please tend to him . He asked , Is he related to you ? . I looked back at the driver and said, NO. He said, ok u leave..we will take care of him. In life incidences happen .Some live on in memories for their thrill and adventure rest melt away in the past . For the bull perhaps the cycle was complete , we would never know whether it was nature or man who took away its eye and will also never know whether it was the same bull or not that I saw in TV or even whether the cycle for it was complete with breaking the wall and attacking an innocent man but one thing is for sure that since it continued to plunder all this while and causing damage to man and property for all this time before finally it was cut short. If we take the driver, the bull as independent systems and take into consideration all their meetings with all the people (both good and bad). For the bull it was end of its life cycle and summated end of all transaction cycles. For the driver it was an end of a transaction cycle which maybe he might have begun at some point in his life. For me perhaps it is just in the middle of a transaction cycle waiting for my transaction and life cycles to complete.