{"id":11,"date":"2016-04-11T08:55:51","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T08:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=11"},"modified":"2016-04-11T08:55:51","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T08:55:51","slug":"goan-gladiators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=11","title":{"rendered":"Goan Gladiators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cB<\/span>aygin yo<\/em> (come quick),\u201d my friend Francis says. Parting this crowd, a few hundred strong, is a job for Moses. Though they were blissfully unaware of each other\u2019s existence almost an hour ago, today\u2019s belligerents, Nigru (because he\u2019s black, zero points for political correctness) and Deus are about to go hoof to hoof as part of a dhirio or bullfight.
No matadors here; the mixed crowd of farmers, fishermen, and drunks (the superset) is here for gratuitous, bloody, bull-on-bull action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ROUND 1:<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the absence of a bell, the organiser\u2019s gruff voice booms and on cue, they charge and head butt. And repeat. Then rinse \u2013 the two prize fighters are periodically doused in buckets of cold, muddy water from the rice paddy next door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it looks like Deus is losing steam, his trainer jumps in and heaves with all his might. It\u2019s hard work, trying to push a nearly 300-kilo bull back into a fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deus backs up a little and then goes full tilt, almost knocking Nigru off balance. But Nigru is a seasoned veteran of Goa\u2019s illegal, bullfight scene. He\u2019s not giving up easy. His filed-down horn misses an overeager spectator by inches. The foolish bastard grins at cheating death \u2013 happily, crowd-thinking is sharper than his, and clammy hands pull him back. Human deaths at a bullfight could blow the lid off this money-spinning gig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francis\u2019s stake for the day is 50K \u2013 that\u2019s a day\u2019s take from the bar he owns. Unlike one of the contenders today, he\u2019s not going to be entirely wiped out, but the day is coming when his epitaph will read, \u201cRecovering alcoholic, dive bar owner, degenerate gambler, and friend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s slugging on some tonic, some lime, and something else, so I ask why he does it. Why wager, why waste a day\u2019s take on 90 minutes of some bullfight? He says it\u2019s all that \u201cpoor fishermen\u201d like him have got \u2013 also, the women around these parts aren\u2019t that hot, so what else is there to blow a wad on? The real story, which I get when I snort at this bullshit, is that betting big money is what rich people do. Throwing your cash around, so poor fisherfolks know you\u2019re a rich fisher fucker is a game as old as the dhirio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ROUND 2<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the fight goes on, people clamour, drinks and money change hands, and more paddy water is dunked on the competitors. There is a momentary lull when Deus again wants to tuck tail and run, which could mean an instant win for Nigru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in answer to the collective prayer of Deus\u2019s entourage, he suddenly goes at it like a bat outta hell, right horn moving effortlessly through Nigru\u2019s left flank. Out spews scarlet blood, the smell, grassy and mineral. Shit just got real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Francis, some people are here simply to watch two bulls fight, and hopefully kill each other. Somewhere embedded deep in the human psyche, blood sport summons up something primitive. It\u2019s a drug for the most jaded. It\u2019s what gets Mahesh\u2019s freak on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahesh is a housekeeping attendant at a three-star hotel in Goa. Hailing from Jharkhand, Mahesh has been picking up after people for nearly 20 years now. He goes home only for a few weeks each year. With no family and zero responsibilities, Mahesh is an alcoholic and a compulsive gambler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From cards, to matka (modko in Goa) to bullfighting, Mahesh wagers his hard-earned money on it all. Everything from roosters to dogs and even the occasional goat fight, was all the local entertainment back home, and so this is a reminder of bygone days, he says. When he was a kid and even now, the thrill of seeing two animals fight to death, gets his juices flowing \u2014 it\u2019s that visceral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ROUND 3<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wounded bull Nigru, attempts one final charge but Deus now has the upper hoof. This time his left horn goes through the soft flesh between Nigru\u2019s ribs and that\u2019s it. The erstwhile proud victor and progenitor of a whole line of Nigrus of various ages and in various stages of training, lies bloodied and bruised. Camp Deus cheers with drunken gusto, as Nigru visibly struggles for breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fight\u2019s done. Francis settles up his debt, and Deus does a victory lap. Amid the frantic cheering and the furtive slinking, a small army descends on the field to check the extent of Nigru\u2019s injuries. No qualified vets here, but these men know what needs to be done. They get on with it, and once Nigru has stilled, carry his carcass home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a look at the people who manufacture and peddle this narcotic, the so-called trainers and owners. It\u2019s common to see bulls walked down the beaches of Goa. Before the advent of bullfighting culture, they ploughed fields. The only time they went head to head was after harvest season, when with nothing else to do, neighbours would pit bulls out of sheer boredom. But the bulls were treated reverently, and even when their lives ended, either naturally or in a fight, the funerals were a spectacle by themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came the 1996 ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this time, Goan tourism had taken off, and these bulls became commodities. Nobody really cared back then if anything happened to them. Times and venues were kept on the down low, communicated to slavering spectators at the absolute last minute. When local bulls were deemed too tame to entertain, hybrid bulls \u2013 bred to be stronger, bigger, and meaner \u2013 were sought from neighbouring states such as Maharashtra and Karnataka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The in-house old-school breeding was a low-overheads operation, but the hybrids inflated the price tags from \u20b960,000 to \u20b91,50,000. Feeding a bull and keeping him in combat-ready conditions costs about \u20b915,000 a month. The top prize now runs from a few thousand to a lakh, sometimes more depending on the scale of the promotion. Plus, the bull owners get paid a fee for showing up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MIDNIGHT POST-FIGHT ANALYSIS<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fights today, draw in crowds ranging anywhere between 200 and 500 people. Larger fights held on important days, draw in even larger crowds. The organisers recover their investment, which includes the winner\u2019s purse, imported scotch, women, and the usual roster of bribes, by charging an entry fee. One such event, held the Easter before last was priced at a not inconsiderable \u20b9500 rupees a head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the government woke up in late 2015 and saw the \u20b9\u20b9 and decided they wanted to legalise dhirio. A formal body called the All Goa Bull Owners Association, under whose aegis the fights were conducted before 1996, is leading the charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government intervention may one day turn this sport into something akin to the ICL. You might just be seated in a brightly lit stadium with a hundred other so-called dhirio fans. Francis won\u2019t be there because it\u2019s no fun being a biggish fish in a much bigger pond. Mahesh won\u2019t be there, because he can\u2019t pay for the popcorn. And when it\u2019s all over, you\u2019ll quietly file out of the stadium, having watched government-sanctioned violence brought to you by {insert a major MNC here}.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d take the gritty, real, hands on bloodsport over some sanitised dog-and-pony show any day. I know what I\u2019d put my money on this haphazardly coordinated dance of death, from the frontlines, with the roar of the crowd, the sound of repeated head butts and the smell of blood. I\u2019d rather live on the edge, with fools and drunks for that brief moment in time, rather than become a mute spectator watching from the sidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viva de Goa, land of drunks, drugs, and the dhirio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not the size of the bull in the fight, it\u2019s the size of the fight. And in Goa, government might makes right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animals"],"yoast_head":"\nGoan Gladiators<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s not the size of the bull in the fight, it\u2019s the size of the fight. 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