Every morning people bathe in the holy waters of Lake Pushkar. This being India, the cows are not only everywhere but are an important part of daily life in India. One day I was attempting to cross a street in India; with few traffic lights, crossings require careful observations and timing. Looking to my left I realized that a cow was engaged in exactly the same activity I was; she timed the traffic, as I did, waiting for openings and moving back when a vehicle was about to hit her. We were doing exactly the same moves and when I looked at her eyes I realized that I was in no way dealing with the situation any more intelligently than she. In fact, given her greater experience with the environment, she had an edge on me. After this encounter I always looked at cows suspiciously in India. These were not the passive and stupid beasts I’d known all my life. Perhaps living in the streets had allowed them to develop greater intellect than the bovines I’d met in the U.S. I preferred this theory to the one that held that cows are reincarnated humans. 
Fortunately, I’d lost my taste for beef long before this trip.