As I walked on the bund road, for the first time, I didn’t look for the thatched roof. I looked down on the ground in front of me as I walked. Perhaps I didn’t want to step in to cow dung, perhaps the burden that I was carrying was too heavy for me that I couldn’t look over my shoulder and find the thatched roof that was always there.
From the bund wall I stepped on to the concrete slab over the brook. Ammachi usually sits on the parapet wall and wait for me. She wasn’t there.
‘Where did she go’, I wondered’ Doesn’t she know today is thursday? Why can’t she wait for me?’
“What happend? Why you didn’t scream and shout and call my name from the main road” I was taken aback to hearing her voice, just when I was thinking about her. It was so sudden and completely unexpected. My heart was beating so fast, I couldn’t breath. I looked around to see, where Ammachi was hiding. I looked down in to the brook and found my grandmother standing in the middle of the brooke.
“You scared me” I scolded her.” Why are you hiding inside the brook?”
“Who said I am hiding? I came to look for kudampuli !”
“Kudampuli grows on the tree, not in the brook!”
“Did you by any chance, look in the mirror when you woke up this morning?”
“Why?” Subconsciously I wiped my face, thinking that I might still have the remnants of ‘modern bread’ and pineapple jam breakfast on my face.
“I was wondering, you must have seen your own face this morning, that is why you are in a foul mood. Don’t you know Kochumaharani, that the kudampuli that grows on the tree usually fall down, when it is ripe and in this case, the tree is near the brook and the fruits fall inside the brook. Or is it that you thought the fruits march and come in to the kitchen on their own?”
“Athey, Old woman, don’t make me angry. You know who I am?” I asked her
“Who are you?”
“You don’t know who I am? After all these years? Aiya ya ya! I shook my head disapprovingly.
Ammachi was laughing.” You are Methran Thambi’s grand daughter. There is no doubt about it! Get down here, I will show you something”
“What did you find?” I asked her
“come here Nina”
“Are you going to fool me?”
“If you don’t want to see, then don’t. Ammachi turned and started to walk.
“Wait wait Ammachi, I am coming. I placed my books on the concrete slab. Slowly I climbed down to the mud wall that separates the brook from the paddy field. The brook was dry and I climbed down to the smooth stones that lined the bottom and ran to where Ammachi was standing.
“what did you find?” I asked her again
“come, she held my hand and we walked to the area where the brook is wider, near Chackochan’s paddy field
“Are you going to cut the mud wall again?” I looked around to see if Chackochan is watching us.
“You never forgets eh?”
“How to, when I have a grand mother like you?”
I watched Ammachi taking a stick from the side of the brook. She picked something white like a long strip of cloth from the ground using the stick.
“What is that?” I asked her
“Snake skin”
“Ente Ammoo,” Saying I ran. I quickly climbed on to the safety of the mud wall and pleaded with Ammachi
“Put it down Ammachi. What if the snake gets angry with you? Please put it down and come back. I don’t want you to die”
“oh Pinney, As if the snake is going to come after me for this old skin.” Ammachi started to walk towards me, still holding the snake skin on the end of the stick.
“You can stay here with the snakes and get bitten. I am going home.”
I hate snakes and I didn’t want to be anywhere near them. I started to run back to the safety of my home. The nearest hospital is 20 minutes away. I tried to remember how to tie the tourniquet, if Ammachi was bitten by the snake. Why can’t my grandmother play safe? Why does she have to go and look for snake skin?
Chakki was in the kitchen, lighing the fire.
“Aha, Kochumaharani, I didn’t hear you coming. Have you seen Ammachi?”
“She is there in the brook, saying kinnaram(sweet words) to the snake”
“What snake?”
“Don’t know. She found a snake skin. I told her to leave it. But you know her! I think she is bringing it home”
“Must be the moorkhan(cobra snake). There are so many of them near the brook”
“Moorkhan? That is the most poisonous snake!”
I went back to the veranda, desperately hoping my grandmother would get out of that brook. Finally I saw her walking on top of the concrete slab.
“Nina, your books are still here.”
“Aiyyah” I muttered to myself. Now I will have to listen to an hour long lecture about responsibility. Grudgingly I walked towards the bund. I looked at my grandmother’s hands, to make sure, she is not holding the snake skin. I rather lose my books than be near to snake or its skin. Fortunately she didn’t take the skin.
“Why do you hate snakes Nina?”
“Because it is evil!”
“Who told you it is evil?”
“the bible!, it was the snake that made Adam and Eve to sin”
“And it was the snake that healed the Israelites!”
“When did the snake heal?” I asked Ammachi
“don’ you remember Moses was asked to make a statue of bronze snake(Nehustan in Hebrew) and hang it on a staff for everyone to see? Those who were bitten by the venomous snake could look up on the snake statue and be healed?”
“But Ammachi, snakes are ugly, they look scary and their bite can kill”
“Ofcourse. But won’t it be the same with everything on earth Nina?”
“What do you mean?”
“Think Nina, where ever there is evil, there is also goodness”
“But there is no goodness in snake. It is just a creeppy crawly! an annoying pest”
“You are only seeing what you want to see Nina”
I looked at my grandmother to see what she sees in a snake that I don’t.
“Snakes can bite you, but they also eat the mice, that destroys our crops! But that is not why I showed you the snake skin”
“Why did you show me the snake skin Ammachi?”
Ammachi looked at me, hoping that I would guess. But I couldn’t.
“Nina, even the snake can remove the old unwanted damaged skin. Every few months, it creates a new skin and get rid of the old one”
“hmmm” I nodded my head. I had plenty of shedding to do.