Meet the Mascot—Part I

Say “hi” to Bela, the beautiful mascot of the Of Donkeys & Dhokla blog who loves to munch on sweet guavas 🙂

Now, she isn’t a donkey—she’s a mule—but we won’t get too technical, ok?

There have been many animals who have influenced me deeply but Bela is one of those non-human souls who I bumped into one day and stood transformed as a human being. She’s a lovely creature (which animal isn’t, btw?!) and hers is an inspiring story that’s almost like a fairy-tale… a story that began with abuse, pain, abandonment, and suffering, which by a twist of fate transformed into one of love, hope, and redemption.

Sometime around the year 2000, a baby mule was born in Rait, a small village in Himachal Pradesh. There was nothing special about her; she was just one of the many equines bred into this world as “beasts of burden” to serve humans. Did she get to bond with her mother? Did she get to roll in the dust with her friends as mules love to? Probably not.

Born into confinement, she was forced into slavery as soon as she was physically capable. She was made to toil for years, carrying heavy loads in the summer sun, in the chilly winters. She got no respite, even when she was too tired to move, ill, or injured. She was beaten, abused, and even starved when she refused to “obey” her “owners.”

One day she suffered a severe leg injury. She wasn’t given proper medical care and the injury worsened with time, rendering her leg useless. Now, of what use is an injured mule that can’t even walk properly? Why would anyone feed or maintain such a “useless” creature? Unsurprisingly, her owners—the ones who had exploited her for years—abandoned the helpless animal to fend for herself.

Thus the mule joined the lakhs of other equines who are exploited mercilessly for years and then abandoned or left to die when they become “useless” due to illness, injury, or old age. However, unlike the millions of other “beasts of burden” who spend their entire lives in misery and die uncared for and in pain, this mule was a lucky one. Her fate was about to change soon…

To be continued…