A Respite

Sakal Times
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A Respite
- CAMIL PARKHE Tuesday, 6 August 2013 - 03:27 PM IST
Tags: blog, Camil Parkhe

“There is a snake ahead on the road,” a woman told me as she passed by me during my morning walk today. It took a few seconds for me to register what she had said and by that time I was in front of a small snake wriggling right on the middle of the road. I was pleasantly surprised the woman had alerted me about the snake without even raising an alarm or creating panic as most people would have done. I halted to watch the snake and that drew attention of another morning walker to the snake. His immediate reaction was to call to out to a labourer at the under-construction building there, to warn him of the snake moving slowly towards that building.

“Please don’t do that, he’ll kill the snake!,” I said.

“It may not be poisonous snake. Let us move it towards the nullah there, it will be safe there and also won’t harm anyone. Otherwise, crows and other birds will also start pecking it on the open road,” I suggested.

Before I had concluded, the young labourer who had just got up from his sleep had rushed there, with a twig in his hand. But his first sentence relieved me immediately.

‘Today is Amavasya and holy Shravan month is starting tomorrow,” he said, bringing an instant smile on my face. Now there was absolutely no possibility of him killing the snake. By that time, three to four persons had gathered there to watch the snake which had coiled itself near a compound wall. I resumed my walk but stepped back for a moment. “Before you disperse, please inform others that it is Amavasya today,” I told the people present there.

I resumed my morning walk, fully assured that the young reptile would not be harmed today. Perhaps, even for a period of a month if it was sighted again during the Shravan, I hoped.