Invincible Naga

Chapter 7 The Strange Sin

For a long time, people used to come across a giant cobra, sometimes in the forest or ravines, sometimes on cliffs or in streams. Since Senan had been a keen listener to the tales narrated to him since he arrived, he had heard about it from many gatherings while enjoying the country liquor in the eves or during carousing with the laborers.

Whenever men came across it, they fled for their lives or revered it as the cobra rose to half its body length, unzipped its hood, and hissed at them. It had not caused any harm other than arousing awe. Some speculated that it would be the heir to the assassinated gigantic cobra that served the Gowdas for many years.

When the giant cobra struggled to crawl along the road, some observers in the crowd plotted to shoot it. Immigrant landowners and laborers were among the indigenous men gathered there. They never had the belief system that the indigenous people followed. Some of the natives intervened and stopped them, claiming that it would bring a curse to the land. They made an easy path for it until it reached safely in the dense forest.

One day, before daybreak, while tapping the rubber trees, Pakirappa suddenly stopped it and took to his heels. His heart was pounding heavily, and he could not call out to Senan as terror had clogged his gullet. He could not imagine running across the terrain in such a short time.

Reaching the farmhouse, he frantically knocked on the door to alert Senan. Senan knew someone, scared of something fierce, had been at his door.

Seizing his rifle from above the almirah, Senan asked, 'Who is it? Tell me who's it.'

No answer. The pounding knocks ceased, and the door stopped trembling. Senan peered through the termite-bitten wooden panes of the window and saw Pakirappa standing at the door, horrified, looking back at the front yard as though he had been followed.

Senan opened the door. Pakirappa stormed in, slammed the door behind him, and gulped the water in the earthen pot near the bed.

'Chenna, there're two cobras, not one,' sweating out and palpitating, Pakirappa remarked, 'It's not single as we think, but two. No one can differentiate them. I saw them together while tapping.'

'Where?' Senan asked as though the cobras were about to pounce on them.

'At the edge of our rubber plantation, at the boundary to the forest...' Pakirappa stammered, and failed to talk further, sighed, sat on his haunches, put everything in his hand heavily beside him, looked at Senan cautiously, and asked, 'You don't trust me?'

'I do. But I thought that someone followed you,' Senan replied, throwing more glances out to the front yard through the window.

'Perhaps they would've followed me. However, I hadn't turned back at any point,' Pakirappa said.

He pressed his hands on either side of the floor, and Senan knew evidently that his weight was transferred from his feet to his palms. Then he whirled around slightly and slowly and shivered. Pakirappa was broken thoroughly. He had done something against his conscience and was remorseful. His stance and face proclaimed it. His eyes were protruding, red, and filled with tears.

When Pakirappa was about to confess something, his lips elongated, bent back to his mouth, and he murmured regretfully, 'I was frightened, and I fled. I thought I was done. They were entwined into one. I think they were mating. It's a sin to watch them so.'

Senan laughed uncontrollably and said, 'Who said so? It's not a sin.'

This offended Pakirappa. He wiped the sweat from his face with the untidy hand towel on his shoulder, then gagged his mouth. Fear rippled on his face like deep wrinkles. Wiping his lips hard, Pakirappa replied furiously, 'Humph! It's a sin. Believe me. You'll find it strange. But for snakes, it's a crime committed against them. If ever they find me again, I'm sure they'll finish me off.'

'Huh, you're such a fool! It's all superstitions! They aren't so brilliant to realize someone is peeping at them.'

'You're ignorant that nature has another rule in the forest. It's another world, not that of humans,' Pakirappa objected boldly.

Pakirappa had been devoted to the snakes rather than terrified of them. Without giving heed to his emotions, Senan hung the rifle over his shoulder and was about to set out to kill the cobra.

Pakirappa got up and hindered him. 'No, don't kill them. The curse will fall upon us for generations.'

'What should we do then?'

'You know, it's a land where snakes are worshipped. Far behind this hill, on the KG estate, there's a Sacred Grove with a Naga idol.'

'So what? You saw an ordinary cobra, not a Naga,' Senan remarked.

Pakirappa looked at him dumbfounded. Senan found the rifle unnecessary and put it back. Pakirappa would either prevent him from killing the cobra or he would spread the rumor that Senan had illegally and deceitfully killed it. Pakirappa would probably tell the indigenous people that it could be the gigantic cobra's heir, which emerged from the restricted forest to bring good fortune to the Gowdas.

Pakirappa had been muttering all the while. His words broke many times as he swung the torchlight across the dense dark vegetation in front. He feared the cobra would appear from the woods like a ghost to haunt him, even though he had not harmed it anyway.

'You know, even the government has forbidden killing snakes,' Pakirappa took to the law.

'Yes, it's against the law, God, and Naga too. So, you'd be punished physically and spiritually only if you attempted to kill it,' Senan remarked, and Pakirappa's eyes gleamed gladly.

Immigrants, who used to kill snakes for various reasons, were landowners or their heirs. So, in the case of snakes, they did as they wished.

Pakirappa asked, 'Do you believe in it?'

'Certainly. Let's wait for it to attack us,' Senan said, driving Pakirappa a little crazy.

Returning to his squat pose and hugging his legs, Pakirappa began to swing around his axis like a willow tree caught in a wild wind. Nonetheless, Pakirappa had been lighting the farmhouse's premises as much as he could with the torch. After this incident, Pakirappa suggested the need for a dog to the Dhani. It would warn the laborers by barking at the snakes that appear beside them while at work.

After a while, Pakirappa prepared his favorite black tea for them. Sitting on the veranda, they sipped tea together. Yet, Pakirappa had been looking for some fierce reptile around his feet in terror.

Amidst this, he tore a piece of cloth from the hand towel, pressed on his closed eyelids piously, and said, 'Chenna, tomorrow morning, I must go to the Sacred Grove on the KG estate and offer this piece of cloth before Naga and ask for forgiveness. Perhaps, I'll be forgiven.'

'In Kerala, we offer milk and turmeric to Naga,' Senan said.

'Yes, we too do so. But this offering is a penance,' Pakirappa said, holding the piece of cloth inside his folded hands in prayer, and he was consoled on his own.

Being quiet, Senan had been pondering the mystery behind the strange sin that makes the mating snakes revengeful and furious towards the viewers.

(to be continued...)