A SANKE IN THE GRASS

ON a sunny afternoon, when the inmates of the bungalow were at their siesta a cyclist  
rang his bell at the gate frantically and announced : "A big cobra has got into your  
compound. It crossed my wheel." He pointed to its track under the gate, and resumed  
his journey.  
The family consisting of the mother and her four sons assembled at the gate in great  
agitation. The old servant Dasa was sleeping in the shed. They shook him out of his  
sleep and announced to him the arrival of the cobra.  
" There is no cobra," he replied and tried to dismiss the matter. They swore at him and  
forced him to take an interest in the cobra.  
" The thing is somewhere here. If it is not found before the evening, we will dismiss  
you. Your neglect of the garden and the lawns is responsible for all these dreadful  
things coming in."  
Some neighbours dropped in. They looked accusingly at Dasa : " You have the laziest  
servant on earth," they said. " He ought to keep the surroundings tidy."  
" I have been asking for a grass-cutter for months," Dasa said.  
In one voice they ordered him to manage with the available things and learn not to  
make demands. He persisted. They began to speculate how much it would cost to  
buy a grass-cutter. A neighbour declared that you could not think of buying any article  
made of iron till after the war. He chanted banalities of wartime prices. The second son  
of the house asserted that he could get anything he wanted at controlled prices.  
The neighbour became eloquent on black-market. A heated debate followed. The rest  
watched in apathy. At this point the college-boy of the house butted in with : " I read in  
an American paper that 30,000 people die of snake-bite every year."  
Mother threw up her arms in horror and arraigned Dasa. The boy elaborated the  
statistics. " I have worked it out, 83 a day. That means every twenty minutes someone  
is dying of cobra-bite. As we have been talking here, one person has lost his life  
somewhere."  
Mother nearly screamed on hearing it. The compound looked sinister. The boys  
brought in bamboo-sticks and pressed one into the hands of the servant also. He kept  
desultorily poking it into the foliage with a cynical air. " The fellow is beating about the  
bush," someone cried aptly. They tucked up their dhoties, seized every available knife  
and crow-bar and began to hack the garden. Creepers, bushes, and lawns, were laid  
low. What could not be trimmed was cut to the root. The inner walls of the house brightened  
with the un- obstructed glare streaming in. When there was nothing more to be done  
Dasa asked triumphantly, " Where is the snake ? "  
An old beggar cried for alms at the gate. They told her not to pester when they were  
engaged in a snake-hunt. On hearing it the old woman became happy.  
" You are fortunate. It is God Subramanya who has come to visit you. Don't kill the  
snake”.
Mother was in hearty agreement : " You are right. I forgot all about the promised  
Abhishckam. This is a reminder." She gave a coin to the beggar, who promised to send  
down a snake-charmer as she went.  
Presently an old man appeared at the gate and announced himself as a snake-
charmer. They gathered around him. He spoke to them of his life and activities and his  
power over snakes. They asked admiringly : " How do you catch them?" "Thus," he  
said, pouncing upon a hypothetical snake on the ground. They pointed the direction in  
which the cobra had gone and asked him to go ahead. He looked helplessly about and  
said : " If you show me the snake, I'll at once catch it. Otherwise what can I do ? The  
moment you see it again, send for me. I live nearby." He gave his name and address  
and departed.  
At five in the evening, they threw away their sticks and implements and repaired to the  
veranda to rest. They had turned up every stone in the garden and cut down every  
grass-blade and shrub, so that the tiniest insect coming into the garden should have no  
cover. They were loudly discussing the various measures they would take to protect  
themselves against reptiles in the future, when Dasa appeared before them carrying  
a water-pot whose mouth was sealed with a slab of stone. He put the pot down and  
said : " I have caught him in this. I saw him peeping out of it. . . . I saw him before he  
could see me." He explained at length the strategy he had employed to catch and seal  
up the snake in the pot. They stood at a safe distance and gazed on the pot. Dasa had  
the glow of a champion on his face.  
" Don't call me an idler hereafter," he said.  
Mother complimented him on his sharpness and wished she had placed some milk in  
the pot as a sort of religious duty. Dasa picked up the pot cautiously and walked off  
saying that he would leave the pot with its contents with the snake-charmer living  
nearby. He became the hero of the day. They watched him in great admiration and  
decided to reward him adequately.  
It was five minutes since Dasa was gone when the youngest son cried : " See there ! "
Out of a hole in the compound wall a cobra emerged. It glided along towards the gate,  
paused for a moment to look at the gathering in the veranda with its hood half- open. It  
crawled under the gate and disappeared along a drain. When they recovered from the  
shock they asked, " Does it mean that there are two snakes here ? " The college-boy  
murmured : " I wish I had taken the risk and knocked the water-pot from Dasa's hand ;  
we might have known what it con- tained."