STORY OF A SNAKE BITE

STORY OF A SNAKE BITE


News resonated in the air. Wind took it directly into the ears. “Ajan is bitten by a snake”. “Poisonous….?” …”Yes of course…” “Is he serious..?”…..” No….but under treatment” ….
Just wait before you start your celebrations. This incident dates back to almost twenty five years when I was a 10th class student preparing for the final SSLC board exam at my home town, Trivandrum. Now that you have started calculating my age, don’t waste time. You’ve got it correct.  Iam not a young man anymore!

 

Saw-Scaled Viper (Churutta)





Any way, it was on that day a stupid snake, a saw- Scaled Viper, commonly called ‘Churutta’ or ‘Travancore wolf snake’ found in abundance in our part of the world, bit me in the middle of my right arm. Even though they belong to the much poisonous Viper family, their bites are often not deadly when compared to other venomous snakes in Kerala in the likes of Indian Cobra, King Cobra, Russell’s viper, Kraits etc. The venom they inject through their stings are often too less to kill an adult person.  But of course, what I have been told by some experts is that, it depends on how agitated they are when they bite and how vulnerable they feel.

That was an ambush; a word much familiar in my day to day work with a depiction goes like “the aggressor by taking advantage of the concealment and element of surprise, attack an unsuspecting enemy from hidden positions” (military language). But here it was a naive ambush as he was neither an aggressor, nor Iam his enemy.


More often it evokes greater interest among audience to know the whereabouts of the ill fated person who has been bitten by a snake just out of their inquisitiveness. Normally there wouldn’t be any spectacular reason for a snake bite, apart from “Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time”. But in my case I have something fussy and funny to tell you as to how this snake has bitten me when Iam in the right place at the right time.
When we were in school, we used to get two months of study leave to prepare our self for the final board exam, a battle which would ultimately decide our future. As Iam aware that I’am in no way near the competition for a rank or even for a more reasonable distinction, my ultimate aim was to score as much as possible to get a first division. Baffling valence bond theories and periodic tables in Chemistry along with trigonometry and algorithms in Math’s were enough to make me feel mad and I was seriously thinking about scaling down my target to a pass mark. Though I'd always remained an average student and had nothing much to boast about my schoolings, my parents always had high expectations on me. I sincerely apologize to them.

 
It was almost one month of my study leave had elapsed that, this incident happened in a fine morning.  I was alone in my house as my parents, both of whom were in government service, would leave for their offices and my siblings to their schools. I was quite startled to hear the sound of something falling on my roof and then rolling around. It took me less time to envisage that it would definitely be a satellite in the ‘love orbit’ that had fallen into my terrace. How could I be very sure about that, has got a reason.  On either side of my house were two houses, one was that of an Ex-MLA, a palatial house huge enough to be called a castle and the other one that of a teacher, with no comparison to the former. Ex- MLA had a male servant in his house whereas the teacher had in work a female. Both were teenagers and were in love.   In those days, when  Skype or Yahoo chat lines were not even heard of,  hapless lovers used to send their heartful  love letters through small children or by paper rockets or through library books under normal circumstances.

 It's true that nature always played a vital role in love affairs. At the same time it played a vital role in its ethics too. Otherwise, just imagine if these mobile phones and SMSs were available at a time when the whole earth was  beaming with natural elegance apt for love and romance, can we just imagine an arranged marriage happening somewhere? Sorry for this stupid wisdom.
Now that these hapless servants were not so intellectual to deal with  library books and also that they were separated by a distance a paper rocket would find it difficult to hit, they had conveniently innovated an incredible idea to express their burning love. And this very idea was in fact made me exasperated enough to learn a few “Metro Politico Thesaurus” (MPT) words in Malayalam literature and also groomed me in giving someone an earful to my satisfaction.

No...Iam not at all against anything wchich is practical love.  Earlier, I genuinely believed that, if your love shrugs are causing annoyance to others, then it’s a matter of grave concern  until it was proven otherwise later on in my life.



Material evidence , re-created


 At this juncture my real concern were the guava fruits, yes “Guava fruit”, the love innovation they successfully put on orbit through which they communicated each other.  This smart guy would throw guavas across my house and straight into the hands  of the gal with love messages inscribed on it. The guava tree, the service provider, was also much annoyed with this guy for that, he never allowed a single fruit on its branches to get fully ripe. Whenever this guy gets  off- balance while hurling this ‘love guava’ towards her, it lands straight into the roof of my house like a misguided missile and caused a thud sound which invariably led to a severe blood rush feeling in my head.
When I got so sick of hearing this, I would immediately recollect some MPT words and ran towards the roof for giving an earful to him (note the point-“HIM” because “HER” was much faster in skulking) in pure Malayalam.  And this was going on and on and on like a prime time Malayalam serial in Asianet until that fateful day in February when I got that ultimate enlightenment and wisdom that to not to meddle with passionate, hapless lovers.
I was just about to open the door that steers into the terrace than I felt a sting; I never saw it but just felt that intense sting, on my right arm, something akin to a staple pin going in.  Looked around in search of that potential reason, I could not spot anything particular.  But that prickly pain and inflammation in the area raised serious doubt in my mind that I had been stung by a nasty wasp or a centipede.  Strolling around the terrace, I forgot everything about guava and other love related events. Now I was searching for a trace to know what exactly happened to me and when I literally found one, it turned to be a shocking sight. It was a snake shed skin which meant a snake is somewhere around.



Snake shed skin



Running back to the door for an on the spot investigation, a terrible feeling beyond description engulfs me when I factually found a snake, a saw scaled viper, in a fissure between the wall and the door frame, hiding in there coiled and stable.

 His large eyes were glowing and was vigorously flicking its forked tongue and staring at me as if he got the thermal image of my body.  So now that I know I had been bitten by a venomous snake, I said myself, “Any way Iam going to die soon, why I shouldn’t make a try to keep myself alive till I see my father?”



The Villain


Lingered on my mind were lesons my biology teacher taught me on first aid steps for a snake bite.“First and foremost, the  tourniquet.Ok.. Running down the bed room I found a hand kerchief of my mother. I knotted it with my teeth and left hand and tied a tourniquet around my arm just above the sting mark. Ok that’s done. Now comes the most difficult act; making an incision on the area to flush out the impure blood (these are now outdated first aid measures shown to be of no value and can be quite dangerous. But those days we were taught like this). Any ways, I made up my mind to perform that surgery as precisely as possible.  A sharp blade from my father's shaving kit would be my standard incision blade for an “X” cut. My shivering left hand failed miserably the first time when I made an attempt with my eyes closed tight.  It wasn't deep to extract any blood.  I said myself,  “if you want to be alive, do it”. This time with eyes wide open I made two terribly deep cuts and there goes a lot of blood.  Now a stupid idea crept up in my mind. How my parents would be knowing the reason for thier elder son's premature death inside the house?. So i need do some thing. I thought, by chance if I die, my parents would be wondering how it had happened. Few milligrams of blood in a tea cup that found it's place on the dining table will eventually tell them the story. I thought.
Suddenly a strange sense of hatred towards the snake started creeping in my mind. “How can he do this to me?  Come what may, I will kill him before I die.”  I found a wooden piece in my courtyard, thin but strong, to take up the revenge.   Steps were scaled with heavy legs, eyes burning, hands trembling....Tan da daaan.... “Yesss he is very much there…. Waiting for a hapless lizard to come his way…Now, gentleman you have to pay the prize for the biggest mistake you have committed which will cost you your life...Take that”.
My first thrust right through the cleft was aimed at his head. It missed the bull’s eye due to my raging anger but landed somewhere on his middle body.  I could see him biting the shaft with his small head again and again. Soon I was like a crusher machine hitting several blows per second all over his body. The snake was gone in no time. “Good bye you cheat…have a nice day”.
Ok, now that everything had been settled well, I thought about the last step in the first aid list,  Reaching the nearest hospital. A full sleeve shirt would hide the tourniquet from the anxious onlookers and neighbors. Still I wonder why I took it as an embarrassment to tell someone that I had been bitten by a snake than preferred to act all by myself.
It didn't take much time for the autorikshaw to reach the Trivandrum Ayurveda College where my father was working. I had in my pocket enough money to pay the auto rickshaw driver, which was later on reimbursed from my father, penny to penny. I walked across the corridor, reached his room and called him from behind the wall outside. So surprised to see me there at that odd time, he came out in a flash with a face full of questions. I tried to act as composed as possible though i was racing with emotions inside. I wet my lips and with an expression on my face similar to that of something funny, I told him in a soft and mellow voice by folding my sleeve up,
 “I think I have been bitten by a snake” and looked at his face.
In a micro second time his face was reddened with shock and awe. “WHERE….??? And HOW??”  His thunderous shout was plenty powerful enough to compel few of his colleagues to rush out from their seats. When I showed them my hand which was by then turned grayish, may be due to the unprofessional tourniquet, all of them had a face like “Oh…hooo.”
I saw one among them running towards the gate to be returned with a Taxi.  Few others took me up and heaved me inside the car. Several got in and the car with all the paraphernalia of a make shift ambulance rushed to a nearby clinic of a doctor who specialized in snake bite. The doctor  after examining me with his gadgets took away the tourniquet with his scissor.  “You made a nasty knot my boy and few more hours and it mean the loss of your limb” he said with a smile on his face. He examined the area with a single lens microscope, sighed and resumed:  “He made a mess of it. Several cut marks and nothing else” this time it was to my father.  There after he examined my blood pressure, eyes, heart beat etc and said everything is normal. To be surer he asked me to remain in the observation bed for few hours for a regular monitoring of events.
 Doctor sat on a chair. “The bite has not broken the skin… It was just a dry bite made out of fear.  Many small snakes cannot break the skin with their tiny fangs. It will be like a sting of a wasp” the doctor gave us a brief lecture on snake bite. According to him it's the fear and panic which causes most death than an original snake bite.later, he gave me some medicines and an ointment to apply on the wound before let me go once the five hour observation period was over. And there ends a dilemma which put me and many others on tender hooks for several hours.
Incidentally this snake bite had resolved a long time dispute in my family. My grandmother who was not having a good terms with my parents due to some petty old family issues had send a messenger with a request that she wants to see her grandson immediately. When I went to see her as per the advice of my father, it was an emotional reunion after almost three years of detached life. My poor granny burst into tears, and while she was thanking me for comming back to her, she could not refrain from expressing her remorse for keeping herself away from us for so long.
And at the same time, I have learned an all important lesson on that day. Never interfere with a chaste love affair or in that amtter hurt any lovers in the world. Encourage them and stay away from their innocent cackles.  Even if you hear the thuds on your terrace simply smile and forgive. Collect those guavas and see that if there is any love messages written on it. If yes politely give it to the recipient. If not, then enjoy few guava fruits which are rich in dietary fiber, vitamin A, C and folic acid. 

Wish you all a very “Happy women’s day”.