CHENNAI: Among the milling crowd of city slickers gathered on Chennai’s Marina beach to do their bit for jallikattu is a fair gaggle of children.“We want jallikattu! We want jallikattu,” Danalakshmi R shouts in unison with her father and his friends.
A simple question gives pause to her enthusiasm. “What is jallikattu?” she repeats the question, buying time to think. And then she looks up to her father for an answer. When he doesn’t oblige, she attempts to answer herself.
“Jallikattu is an animal like a cow.” The same question leaves Megala P (6) and Manoj P (8) looking at each other, hoping the other would know the answer. Megala gets busy crushing the plastic soda glass in her hand as big brother Manoj volunteers an answer: “Jallikattu is beach”.
He then nudges his little sister, “Why don’t you tell the answer?” So where does jallikattu happen? The answer to that too is “beach”.
Shazia (8) and Harshiya Begum (10) too think the “beach” is a likely place for jallikattu until their little brother Asif jumps in and says, “It happens in the playground.” The third question, “Why are you here at the beach today?” elicits a variety of answers. “I’m here to protect Tamil identity,” says Archana Ram (9). Gopika Sekar (11) says, “I like jallikattu.” When asked if she’s ever seen one, she says, “Why yes! I saw it on TV yesterday.” Sana Jain (10) is, however, more honest with her answer. She says, “We’re here because everybody’s here.”
However, most kids promptly answer the final question with complete confidence. “For how many years has jallikattu been happening?” Shazia Begum jumps to answer, “Five years!” Her sister Harshiya slaps her shoulder with irritation and corrects her, “No you’re wrong. It’s six years!”