For the Love of Goats and Sheep

I think goats and sheep are two of the most photogenic animals. No matter where I see them, I am drawn to them like nomads to goats and sheep. 😛 I find the mountain goats and sheep especially interesting because of their association with nomads in various parts of India. I could spend hours just watching them graze, bleat to warn and communicate and poop like there is no tomorrow and repeat. At the end of the session, I come away feeling as if I meditated for hours and smelling like sheep dung myself.

While trekking to Indrahar Pass in Himachal Pradesh, I met several Gaddis, semi-nomadic shepherds of the region. I spent a great deal of time understanding their lifestyle and how their trade was coming to an end over a cup of goat milk tea. I’ll be honest the tea turned my stomach.

In my free time during the trek, I escaped drinking tea and instead followed the goats and sheep with my camera in tow. Initially, they looked at me suspiciously. Once a mamma sheep even warned me by thumping her hoof hard on the ground for getting too close to her lamb. At another time I got head-butted for petting a lamb. But I’m not the “once butted twice shy” kind of a girl, I continued to go after them. It turned out they realised I was plain stupid and didn’t mean any harm and accepted me.