Both were held apart for a few seconds by a few men gathered around them. Despite their efforts to keep Pakirappa and Senan away from each other, in spite of stopping an imminent fight, the men thronged had a secret desire to witness a brawl like the one that used to occur in the Toddy Shop.
Bloodshed! Howls and cries! Abuses and shouts! They waited. The Tea Shop Proprietor, Nagesh, yearned for the same thing. If the center of conflict and plotting shifted from toddy to tea, he would prosper in business since the evening gatherings, especially on Sunday and Saturday.
Nagesh had taken Pakirappa to one side and was bargaining with him about something that Pakirappa refused. Senan pondered what it could be, but he couldn't figure it out because they spoke in Tulu rather than Kannada, which was beyond his comprehension. In the meantime, Pakirappa pushed Nagesh violently back and approached Senan as if he were evading something for their own good.
'Let's go. We're getting late.' Pakirappa said while grabbing Senan's hand fiercely, and yanking him out of the shop.
The men watching them stayed back, scared of Pakirappa's unanticipated reaction. They had yet to carry out the weekly purchase. On the other hand, Senan did not want to mention it. Like Pakirappa, he also wished to return.
On their way back, after walking a few meters, they arrived at the massive river bridge. The river was flowing immensely. The water level was so high that it may touch the bridge in two or three torrential rains. Senan observing that only trees could be seen down the bridge, on both sides of the river, but no house.
'The male elephant that gets out from the forest and covers most of the land from Aniyoor to Devagiri miraculously going along its bank down the bridge, every year. Simon takes its photo from the bridge. Only he owns a camera here. His father had a studio at Mangalore years ago,' Pakirappa told Senan
Senan realized that Pakirappa had abandoned the topic, which resulted in a conflict between them, as Pakirappa spoke casually to him.
Consequently, Senan was prepared to hear about the male elephant that emerges out of the forest in the same month every year and travels through the same way, covering two adjacent villages to get back to the reserved forest of Devagiri. The elephant emerged out of the forest a year after the huge Cobra, which traversed the entire farmland of the Gowdas, was killed. It had been an embodiment of Naga to them.
Nobody was harmed or upset by the elephant, and nobody got in its way. It did not bring anything good or unpleasant. Furthermore, the indigenous people believed that Naga had forgiven them for killing the enormous cobra. It was a positive emblem of omnipresence conveyed by nature.
Senan accepted Pakirappa's narrative without questioning its veracity.
After a brief pause, Pakirappa stated, 'I must ask you not to intervene in anything that would prove life-threatening, even in such instances.'
'Do you know that in the Toddy Shop, casual talks on household problems erupted into violent attacks on Saturday evenings? Most of them resulted in the death of either the offender or the victim. In a few instances, the witness was killed for expressing their viewpoint or attempting to stop the fight.'
'Hence, the viewers stopped intervening as they were victimized,' Pakirappa concluded.
As soon as Pakirappa came to a halt, Senan asked, 'Was Neenkaraja such a victim?'
The query gripped Pakirappa's feet. He was too startled to stop walking. After sending a sharp glance at Senan, Pakirappa said, 'I'll tell you one day. Don't ask me when. Allow me some time to think and recollect. Don't create any problems. Gone cases are gone forever. Digging them out will affect our safety.'
(to be continued)
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Invincible Naga
Mystery / ThrillerSenan had strange encounters with snakes, both in dreams and real life, when he was employed as a laborer in a vast farmland in the deep woods in a remote village in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, South India. Later, he finds that the snake had bee...
