The Milk man in Ole Bangalore

When Bangalore was still a sleepy town surrounded by villages, the villagers would supply the Bangalorean's their household needs.
One of them was the Milk man who would brave the cold weather and dew and land with his cow every morning to supply fresh milk for our household.
The milkman had  a designated area inside our garden near the gate where he would tether his cow, and if there was a calf it would also accompany its mother.
The cow would make itself at home and bless the patch of garden with its ablutions for the day of large quantum of urine and a generous quantum of cow dung.
and the area for the cow in the garden used to be quite a mess after the cow and milkman left.
The ritual was simple the milk man would start milking the cow after one of us had verified that his milking jar did not contain water,
but he had a trick, he would have the water in the jar and while feigning to throw it out he would always retain some water in it.
Someone had to keep an eye on the milkman at work and make sure he did not add water and that his container was empty before milking the cow.
But the milkman would still take a chance of adding water, since that was essential in his enterprise of supplying fresh milk.
There was a small clump of bushes where he tethered his cow while milking and he would always have a bottle of water ready there, though his claim was|
it was to clean the udders of the cow, but whenever he got a chance it was added to the milk.
He would patiently milk the cow and after milking the cow he would measure it in his half liter aluminium measure and here again he had a few tricks up his sleeves.
The milkman  had a way of handling the measure so that there was residual milk in the measure and all of it was not poured into the vessel provided for collecting the milk.
If there was any excess milk he would take away in a container which he always carried with him.
The milkman's haste was in emptying the vessel before milking the cow and also while measuring the milk, when he milked the cow he was in no hurry since he was
waiting to add water if ever he got a chance or the person given the job to keep an eye on him was distracted.
Over the years the milkman too moved on and my mother switched over to dairy milk which was half toned, full toned and one of the children had the honor
of stepping out in the  cold morning to buy the bottles from the milk booth which used be built with Aluminium sheets.
It was a challenge to get us to venture in the cold, so the milkman thrived for many years supplying fresh milk straight from the udders of the cow, with some
water added whenever the opportunity presented itself.
The milkman is a relic of the ole Bangalore which was unhurried and based on relationships, but today the city races on in a mad rush leading to nowhere and milk
booths have been replaced with malls with tetra pack milk which you can store for months.