Not quite Malaika, but 1.5ft tall Munni has moves of her own

She has large, pretty eyes that give an eyeliner effect and bubblegum pink lips. She flashes her curvaceous body as she walks the ramp, wearing a harness decorated with colourful wool tufts. A beaded necklace hangs around her neck with a bell at the bottom and a red cloth is draped over her back. The metal bracelets around her legs make a clunking sound as she moves. Meet Munni, the 1.5ft tall two-and-a-half-year-old cow, a major attraction for visitors at the cattle market along the Superhighway – the city’s hub of sacrificial animals for Eidul Azha. Munni was brought here from Khairpur district. Her owner, Madam Kiran, does not intend to sell her. Besides, this 15-kg weighing cow is too young to fulfil the requirements for the religious sacrifice. Kiran has recently started cattle farming and earned a big name in the business within a short span of time. Using Munni’s extraordinary small size, her owner is attracting customers for other animals in her tents at the market.
She has prepared a ramp in one of her tents on which Munni performs a catwalk every night. Munni has been trained to jump from the ramp after finishing her walk, thrilling her audience. “Munni has broken all records like the Munni in the Bollywood film. It’s like a cinema where a large number of visitors come to see Munni,” says one of the spectators. The show starts after 8pm. The tent’s supervisor, Javed Qureshi told Pakistan Today that a buyer offered Rs 500,000 for Munni, but her owner turned it down. “There are around 100 animals in our tent, but Munni has become the centre of attraction for everyone, he said. “We have been unable to sell a single animal so far but you cannot imagine how many visitors turn up at our tents just to see Munni.”
He said that even the people deployed at the entry point of the market to collect parking charges guide visitors to our tents when they ask them about Munni. Munni, however, is not the lone unusual attraction in the market. There is a ram with four horns named Nayaab. He drinks milk and eats desi ghee and butter. A cross between a Chinese and Turkish breed, he weighs 80-kg. He is the star attraction of the ATM Cattle and Dairy Farms tents. The supervisor of the tent, Muhammad Aslam said that a buyer offered Rs 100,000 for the ram, but like Munni, he is not for sale either. There is also a bull in the same tent that naturally has a pattern on its body that appears like the name ‘Bilal’ in Urdu.
“This bull is very lucky for us as we earned a lot last year because of him. We have brought him here this year as well so he can be fortunate for us again. Last year, a buyer offered Rs 700,000 for him, but his owner refused to sell him. There is another peculiar animal in the Qadri cattle tent at the market – a black bull with only three legs. He, too, is not for sale. — photoS BY ASIM REHMANI