It was a bone chilling experience .
I was witnessing a sport in Spain which has been going on since time immemorial. It was a bull fight . With the display of the colourful band , fierce bull rushed inside the ring arena . It found a man inside and rushed to crush him under its mighty hoofs. The man was expecting this attack so he jumped over the boundary to clear off the attacking bull. The mighty bull then started thumping its hoofs on the ground . And there entered a warrior with a flag mounted on a sharp arsenal . The angry bull now attacked him but before it could pierce the man with its sharp horns , the man had pierced the sharp arsenal on the back of the ferocious bull . The crowd became ecstatic . There was appreciation all around and the man jumped the boundary wall like a hero .
The stadium was jam packed . I reached the stadium before-time lest I should be denied a ticket . My daughters accompanied me but were not allowed inside as they were below sixteen . As I stood in the queue , horse mounted police force took up position to ward off any kind of disruption by animal lovers who had assembled to protest against the cruelty to the animals . They were people from different walks of life who assembled in front of the stadium carrying placards depicting the photographs of poor animals being injured by almighty humans . Something inside me cried aloud and I was about to return back from the venue but then my curiosity won and I purchased the tickets .
It appeared to me right from the beginning that the bulls were intoxicated possibly with opium or alcoholic drinks . Their ability to judge and then attack was missing . After the sharpened arsenal pierced the bulls , there entered warriors ‘picadores’, mounted on horse's back and armed with a sort of lance. The horses were huge , muscular and tall . The horses were covered with protective coverings . Their eyes too were covered with clothes to prevent them from seeing the attacker . The ferocious bull attacked the horses . The warrior sitting atop the horse attacked the bull with the arrow and pierced its chest wall . A gush of blood came out of the wounded chest . The bull lost a lot of blood following this attack. It had become weak and also confused . It was unable to understand as to why he should be a target of such inhuman attacks by human being .
And then the real hero ‘torero’ descended on the scene . He walked up to the centre of the arena , waived his hand carrying a sharp sword muleta, in one hand and a small red rag in the other . He waived the red rag at the bull . Bull rushed at him but could attack the cloth only as the warrior had moved to a side . This game continued for quite a while , the warrior would enrage the bull with red cloth , bull would attack towards the red cloth but the man behind would just move a bit to a side to score off the attack , the bull would get enraged further to attack with renewed vigor . But the bleeding bull was getting weaker every moment due to continuous blood loss from the inflicted wounds . Soon it was damn tired and was unable to move quickly . The hero then attacked the bull with his sharp sword to pierce its heart . The bull fell on the ground , convulsed a little , vomited blood and soon became motionless . There was excitement all around . The crowd started shouting with joy .
This was followed by a play of band and second bull was deployed for the game . The same routine followed , this bull too was intoxicated , repeated assault by the warriors well dressed and decorated , and final assault by a hero who fought with a tired and weak bull who was at the verge of death any way due to incessant rapid loss of blood . To my utter dismay , there was cheers all around , viewers were ecstatic with joy as their hero triumphantly killed the animal . This show was repeated many times but I could tolerate no more , my heart was pounding as if it would come out of my throat . I was saddened by the fate of poor hapless animal . I came out halfway from this terrible show of inhumanity and pseudo-triumph.
