Senan pondered over it. He assumed that whatever Pakirappa told him was correct. Suddenly, he shifted the topic, saying, 'The river would overflow at any time.'
'Last year, during heavy rains, the river got swelled and the water flowed over the bridge for three days, making it impossible to travel across. For a few days, Devagiri was stranded from the world,' Pakirappa said, and he stopped at the small sidebars of the bridge looking into the river, and continued, 'A huge python used to scare people in a small house on the bank of the river. It's an ancestral home of the famous family of Gowdas.'
'Where? I can't see any house there,' Senan replied.
'That's amidst the thick trees and vegetation. You can see it if you go down the path and along the bank at the right of the river a few feet away. The house has many mysteries. One of them is related to a huge viper,' Pakirappa said.
Pakirappa's voice bore the snake's mightiness and delved deep into the mystery of its recurrent appearance. The huge python appears mostly in front of their house in the evening, around five times a year. There had been a wide gap between its arrivals. As soon as the people cry aloud and try to dive it away, it disappears into the river. Their relatives, who happened to be at the time of its arrival, attacked it, disregarding their objection against harming it anyway.
They had harmed it slightly, one by beating it and the other by injuring it with a knife. Although it escaped into the river, it appeared again after two months. Everyone was startled to know that the men who injured the Python were killed in different accidents within a year of the attack. After that, none dared to help them to drive it away.
During the time of their forefathers, a big sacred grove existed in the premises of their house. Since the young generation began to discard veganism, it was hard for the family to keep the Sacred Grove with devotion. They decided to shift it to the interiors of the KG Estate with a mutual understanding with the then-owner of the KG estate, who had been an ardent devotee of the Naga. They believed that their family prospered with the arrival of the Naga deity in their land.
'People throng here, looking down at the direction of the house while hearing the commotion from the house in the evening. But none dares to go there and help them after the death of those men,' Pakirappa said, concluding the story.
'I dare to help them,' Senan said.
'Don't!' Pakirappa warned him.
'Such superstitions scare frail men, but not me.'
'Don't bluff! You look frail,' Pakirappa mocked him.
'Perhaps we can't be certain about it. However, the experience of someone may be a lie or superstition for us. When it comes to us, it turns into a belief. That's the difference,' Pakirappa added.
'Next time, when that python comes, I'm ready to drive it away or even to finish it,' Pakirappa was caught in panic hearing the confidence in Senan's voice.
'Don't. Never,' Pakirappa retorted, and his feet began to gain more speed with each pace, which Senan could neither imagine nor pace with.
They reached where Pakirappa had hurled away one of his slippers into the thick plants. They found the other slipper by the roadside on their way back. He took it, and desperately looked around, thinking about its pair. Not knowing what to do with it, he threw it away. Unlike Senan, Pakirappa had no problem with walking barefoot.
On their way, two jeeps passed by, hardly hitting them. They could expect rash driving on a Saturday evening since laborers and managers were paid weekly on Saturdays.
'You can't imagine how these drunkards behave on the road. Not better than wild animals. They'll kill us or themselves. Anything in their hand can turn a weapon against others.'
(to be continued)