Swami Manavala Mamunigal Uthsavam & the new horse Ranga !!

Triplicanites are ecstatic.   Swami Manavala Mamunigal uthsavam is being celebrated grandly.  Today is day 8 of the Uthsavam – it was Yanai (Elephant – silver one at that) vahana purappadu at Thiruvallikkeni.

 

In 1912, a bay Irish Hunter is born in Devon, England. At an auction, farmer Ted Narracott outbids his landlord Lyons for the colt, to the dismay of his wife Rose, because the family needs a working horse that can plough the field, not an Irish Hunter. Their son Albert, accompanied by his best friend Andrew, names the colt Joey, and teaches him to come when he imitates an owl's call. The pair form a close bond. Against all odds, the horse and boy plough a rocky field, which lets them grow turnips and thus saving the family's farm. 

Rose shows Albert his father's medals, including a Distinguished Conduct Medal, from the Second Boer War, and gives him Ted's regimental pennant, confiding in Albert that his father carries physical and mental scars from the war. In 1914, as war with Germany is declared, heavy rain ruins the family's crops, forcing Ted to sell Joey to the army. Albert is heartbroken and tries to stop the sale, to no avail. Captain James Nicholls sees Albert's attachment to the horse and promises to look after Joey. Albert tries to enlist but is too young, and before the company departs, he ties the pennant to Joey's bridle and promises Joey he will find him !!! 

Other than my self-professed love for elephants, the horse that used to go in front in the Temple procession at Thiruvallikkeni was also a hit...  there have been horses at the temple, mostly white majestic ones – have heard from the erstwhile keeper Velayudham that it was a colt retired from racing !

 

Horse  is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an odd-toed ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. Humans domesticated horses and needed them to perform a variety of duties.  There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors,markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior. One type of horse-powered work was the hauling of heavy loads, plowing fields, and other tasks that required pulling ability.

 

The horse (Equus ferus caballus) has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years.  Horses' anatomy enables them to make use of speed to escape predators and they have a well-developed sense of balance and a strong fight-or-flight response.  Horses have significant place in history, especially battles and formation of kingdoms.  North America is home to more horses than any other continent — over 19 million, according to some estimates. For most of human history, however, the Americas had no horses at all.   Archaeological evidence indicates that the genus Equus, which includes horses, donkeys, and zebras, evolved in the western hemisphere between 4 and 4.5 million years ago before spreading to Eurasia, only to disappear during a megafauna extinction event at the end of the Pleistocene. 

 

The storyline in 2^nd para is that of ‘War Horse’ – a Steven Spielberg movie released in 2011.  It is based on Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel of the same name and its 2007 stage adaptation. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Peter Mullan, Emily Watson, Niels Arestrup, Jeremy Irvine (in his feature film debut), David Thewlis, Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch. Set before and during World War I, its plot follows Joey, a bay Irish Hunter horse raised by British teenager Albert as he is bought by the British Army, leading him to encounter various people throughout Europe, in the midst of the war and its tragedies.  Michael Morpurgo wrote the 1982 children's novel War Horse after meeting World War I veterans in the Devon village of Iddesleigh where he lived.  Morpurgo researched the subject further and learned that a million horses died on the British side; he extrapolated an overall figure of 10 million horse deaths on all sides.  Of the million horses that were sent abroad from the UK, only 62,000 returned, the rest dying in the war or slaughtered in France for meat.  Sad story, indeed, while Europeans, especially UK teaches the rest of World compassion.

 

Today a new white horse walked majestically in front of the goshti during Mamunigal purappadu.  Kudai Raja has named it Ranga – and Ranga on debut was slightly nervous walking amidst the din and the moving vehicles of Triplicane – here are some photos of the new horse and Raja.

 
Regards – S Sampathkumar
3.11.2024