IS IT A MEAN ITEM? ASS / DONKEY

 IS IT A MEAN   ITEM?  ASS / DONKEY   

As and when convenient, we use the term Ass or Donkey as the case may be. In either case the animal is the same. Then why we call something Ass or Donkey? Ironically, we castigate someone as Ass or Donkey merely to show our displeasure about the person or his/her styles of functioning.

To be called an Ass or Donkey is insulting to the person while the animal in this name roams about as the happiest one. If only the animal gets to know with whom we equate its name, it may too feel insulted; till then it stays insulated.

All attempts to delineate the two names to distinguish the animal as ASS or DONKEY remain futile; yes, the dictionary states that the two are synonymous and that Ass is an old term. It doesn’t anyway mean that a Donkey is more modern an animal than the Ass. Only the name is old for the Ass and the name Donkey is less old.

I too have observed that old timers  liberally use the term ‘Ass’ than the other option. That way the term ‘Ass’ seems to enjoy preference over its later name. In fact in the British parliament, once a member was called an ‘Ass’ and the observer faced pressure to tender an apology. The person elegantly extricated self, telling “I said the honourable member is an Ass and I feel sorry for it”. Apparently, it is an apology; but is more a reiteration, if one carefully observes the phraseology.

Leaving aside such animals and utterances, we have enough to understand of the quality of the animal.

Asses roam in the hot Sun –no matter how harsh the summer is. While Horses and Asses are domesticated, their cousin ZEBRA is not easy to handle and so hard to domesticate. Except in Zoo houses or in Circus circuits where zebra herds run around a central arena, the animal is not an item of  common sight.

Relative size of the donkey stands the animal in advantage, lest, humans should have readily tagged it to a cart for ferrying men and material. Why I feel so? Donkey is an inexpensive animal demanding no food or rest from the master. You may be surprised to learn that –beyond certain volume of work/ time, horses may refuse to work and may even destabilize the cart and its contents including all passengers; once it turns reluctant it will refuse to work, unless the animal is used to work at those hours. A cart-tied Horse may simply raise its forelegs menacingly high, tilting the cart to a steep incline to discard all men and material inside like a pack of cards. Any attempt to punish the horse would cause even harsher responses including ‘biting’ the men around.

To  continue ……