Fani was a tall girl by Indian standards. She was nearly 6 feet tall, and many words could be used to describe her physique – slim, svelte, slender, snake-hipped, lissom, graceful and sylph-like, for example. You will note that I have intentionally not used words like willowy. There is a reason for this. I picked words that had the 's' sound in them. These were the words she might have used to describe herself, because her brain somehow seemed to show a preference for sibilant words. They seemed to roll off her tongue smoothly – almost as if she was hissing them.
She was quite a girl. Her healthy skin tone did not betray her real age. It was as soft, glowing and youthful as if it had been renewed periodically. Few encountering her had realised that that was the reality. Though like all of us, her skin underwent shedding of dead surface cells of the epidermis by washing or scratching, combined with replacement of these by a layer of younger cells moving outwards and dying in a continuous cycle, she also underwent a deeper annual shedding of skin. For, in reality, she was a snake. She was quite a charmer too. Hence, a snake-charmer.
She was a living specimen of what has been described in Indian lore as an Ichchadhaari Naagin, a female serpent who can change her form into a human at will. Ancient knowledge had classified her kind as a type of Visha-kanyas or poison-maidens. Many rationalists, scientists and seekers had dismissed such creatures as part of mythology or imagination. Apart from these creatures themselves (and other so called 'mythological' creatures), few believed in these so called 'old-wives tales'. Only the creatures themselves knew some of the 'rules' that effected their existence. They were seldom aware of 'rules' that applied to other species.
One of rites of passage was the annual moulting. Every year, she disappeared from her work place to go to her native town of Agumbe. Perched on the eastern and upper edge of the Western Ghats, Agumbe in Shivamogga (also anglicized as Shimoga) district of Karnataka, receives very heavy rainfall. It is surrounded by extensive rain-forests and is home to the King Cobra. After arriving at Agumbe, she disappeared into the forest and changed back to her serpent form for shedding her skin, for it had become too tight because she had grown a bit.
She grew around an inch every year, both as a snake and as a human. She had kept changing jobs every few years so that people around her did not notice it. On top of it, she dropped old friends in a regular cycle, so they did not discern the growth of a few inches. A couple of inches could always be ascribed to footwear but it was difficult to explain larger growth after her adolescence. But, with a height of 6 feet, towering over other women, being she was getting noticed most of the time. And that could be potentially dangerous for her. She had to stop – stop growing any longer, that is.
**
There was only one solution for that, as per the lore of her species – marriage, to a human. Till now she had her pick of men, but they were just one-night stands and passing fancies. In fact, all of them had passed away in the woods she had taken them to. Of late, she had taken a fancy to a young handsome chap in her office. Standing tall, at 6 feet 2 inches, she thought he would be an ideal spouse, a help-mate who would help her shrug off her reptilian side.
She had tried to catch his attention a couple of times at the office cafeteria, but when he looked in her direction she felt that he had not noticed her, but seen through her head without registering her face. She had to take the initiative, she felt.
She carried her food tray to his table and sat opposite him. He smiled in acknowledgement. As he reached for his glass of water, she extended her hand to it as if it was her glass and made contact with his hand. She felt a peculiar tingling that she could not interpret. He withdrew his hand as if he had experienced an electric shock.
"Ssorry," she said, "I'd ssupposed that wass my glasss."
He smiled.
She smiled back, and extending her hand, introduced herself, "I am Fani. I am a ssenior ssupervisor in the Ssoftware Ssystems."
He accepted her hand and replied, "Glad to meet you, Fani. Of course, your name is Fani. Funny, doesn't it refer to the hood of a serpent1?"
She felt the tingle again, though it looked like he did not get jolted.
1 Fani means one with a hood, Fan, in Hindi, from the Sanskrit FaNam.
**
They met several times after that and got closer. After a few encounters, her tingling too subsided. He seemed to be quite well off. In fact, she was quite sure that, apart from his salary, he had other sources of income, though she could not find out more. She did not care. She was happy that she had found a wealthy guy who could give her any luxury she desired. She decided to go in for the kill – figuratively or literally, only time would tell.
**
As they sat under a tree in the forest, she decided to pop the question. She had decided what she would do if she had declined her offer – one more body would be discovered in the woods.
She asked him, "We sseem to be sspecially ssuited for one another. Sshall we sseal our romance by becoming sspouses?"
He gave her a long look, and said, "Nowadays, people don't believe in ancient lores. But you know better than that. For you are an Ichchadhaari Naagin, as you very well know."
Surprised, she asked, "Sso you guesssed ssomehow!"
He explained, "It was not a guess. Your serpentine figure, diction and accent would be clear indicator for those who watch out for these things."
She persisted, "Sstill a guess."
He added, "And the glitter in your eyes when I told you that you should not nag me. Also, your annual disappearance to Agumbe re-confirmed it." He pronounced nag in an extended fashion and mentally chuckled at his own pun2.
"Sso you know about my vissits to Agumbe?", she asked.
"Yes, I have been keeping an eye on your activities for the last couple of years, from the time I first saw the large naaga-maNii3 in your head. I have been watching it grow," he added.
She observed, "Sso you know lotss about ssnakes."
"Yes," he concurred, "I also know you cannot harm me for I am blessed with the GaruDa-rekha4, which will protect me from you as it has done on many earlier occasions. You have asked me a couple of times about the source of my wealth. It comes from sale of the valuable naaga-maNis. I am a snake-charmer of a different kind."
"You cannot esscape me," she warned, realising that her romantic dreams had just got shattered and changing her form into a serpent, she bared her fangs.
He smiled, "Don't warn me. You cannot harm me. Your senses did warn you to keep away from me, but you chose to ignore the warnings till they died down. The first time you shook hands with me I had decreased my immunity for a second to judge the level of maturity of your gem, but turned it on immediately after assessing you. It is the right time to harvest your gem. It will fetch me plenty," he said.
She lunged at him, but he deftly stepped aside and expertly caught her from behind, just below her jaw, with one hand and sliced off her head with one smooth movement of his knife held in the other hand.
He walked back to his car, singing in Hindi, "Shikaar karne ko aaye, shikaar hoke chale.5"
2 Naag is the Sanskrit word for a serpent
3 A gem said to be found in the hood of a serpent4 A line which according to some palmists represents the Garuda and protects a person, on whose palm it appears, from serpents.
5 He meant, "(you) had come to hunt, but became hunted (yourself)", though the lyricist of the song Hasraj Jaipuri did not mean exactly that in the song from the 1968 film Shikaar sung by Mohd. Rafi..
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