Shri Ram Sharma

It is about the year 1908 CE. It would be the end of December or the beginning of January. The cold was biting ${ }^{\prime}$. A few days earlier, there had been some hail, so the severity of the cold had increased further. It would be around three or four in the evening. While eating juniper berries with many companions, a man near the village shouted loudly, “Your brother is calling you; go back home immediately.” I started walking home. My younger brother was with me. He was afraid of his elder brother’s anger, so he walked slowly. It didn’t make sense to me what kind of crime had been committed. Fearfully, I entered the house. There was a suspicion ${ }^{2}$ that perhaps I would be punished for eating the juniper berries. But I found my elder brother writing letters in the courtyard. The fear of being scolded disappeared. Seeing us, my elder brother said, “Take these letters and drop them off at the post office in Makhanpur. Go quickly, so that the evening mail can be dispatched. These are very important.”

Even though it was a cold day, the wind was howling violently. The wind was shaking violently ${ }^{3}$, so we tied our ears with a cloth. Mother had tied a handful of dried gram in a cloth for us to eat. Both of us brothers took our respective sticks and went out of the house. At that time, the stick of that babool tree had as much charm as the stick of that era had with the rayfal. My stick had already become the vehicle of many snakes

1. Severe cold 2. Fear 3. Soft material inside the bone 4. To roast

. Every year, apples would fall ${ }^{1}$ from the mango trees between Makhanpur School and the village. Because of this, that dead stick appeared alive. With a happy face ${ }^{2}$, both of us started walking quickly towards Makhanpur. I put the letters in my turban because there were no pockets in my kurta.

Both of us, jumping and running, reached near the well in four furlongs, where a very terrible black snake had fallen. The well was shallow, and its depth was eighteen feet. There was no water in it. I don’t know how the snake had fallen into it? However, our knowledge of the snake falling into the well was only two months old. Children are naturally playful. Our group going to school was a complete band of monkeys. One day, while returning from school, we were advised to throw stones into the well ${ }^{3}$. First, I was the one who threw the stone. I threw a stone into the well to hear what sound it made. After hearing it, I wanted to hear the echo ${ }^{4}$ of my own voice, but as soon as the stone fell into the well, a hissing sound was heard. The boys standing by the well were first shocked by that hissing sound, as startled deer are by the bark of a nearby dog. Then everyone started throwing stones one by one and shouting at the angry hissing sound coming from the well.

Usually, stones were thrown into the well every day while going to the village and returning from Makhanpur. I would go ahead and throw a stone into the well while holding the turban in one hand and throwing the stone with the other. This had become a daily habit. At that time, I considered making the snake hiss a big achievement. So, as soon as both of us approached the well, the habit of throwing a stone and hearing the hiss ${ }^{6}$ woke up. I started walking towards the well. The younger brother followed me, as a young fawn ${ }^{1}$ follows its mother.

I picked up a stone from the edge of the well and, while jumping, threw the stone at the snake while letting the turban fall from one hand. But I fell like lightning ${ }^{3}$ on me. Whether the snake hissed or not, whether the stone hit it or not, I don’t remember this thing now. As soon as I took the turban in my hand, the three letters fell into the well while spinning. Suddenly, as if the soul of a deer, while running, emerges from a bullet, and it continues to struggle, similarly, those letters seemed to have fallen out of the turban, and my knowledge also fell out. As they fell, I also made a move to catch them; just as a wounded lion attacks the hunter who sees it climbing the tree. But they had already gone beyond reach. In my panic to catch them, I myself fell into the well due to a sudden movement.

We both sat on the edge of the well, weeping—the younger brother weeping loudly and I silently blinking my eyes. The air coming from the well made the lid rise and the water splashed out. The air of despair, the fear of being scolded, and the agitation ${ }^{4}$ made me want to weep. We tried to suppress the emotions inside our eyelids, but tears kept flowing down our cheeks. I remembered my mother. I wished my mother would come and hug me and, with love, say that nothing happened and the letters would be written again. I thought that if a lot of mud was thrown into the well and someone was told at home to bring the letter, but at that time, I didn’t even know how to lie. If I told the truth upon returning home, it would be like a lullaby. My body, not only, but my mind also trembled with the thought of death. I was sitting, crushed, under the weight of the fear of future punishment for telling the truth and the responsibility of not delivering the letters for lying. Fifteen minutes passed in this thought process. It was getting late, and the afternoon was advancing. I thought about running away somewhere, but the fear of being scolded and the heavy responsibility of the sword of duty ${ }^{1}$ kept returning.

1. Deer’s child 2. To weep loudly 3. To be frightened, to be agitated 4. A sword with two edges, a double-edged sword

With firm determination, the beams of doubt are cut off. My doubt also disappeared. I decided to go into the well and take out the letters. What a terrible decision! But if someone is ready to die, what? To accomplish any task, whether by stupidity or wisdom, one accepts the path of death, and even intentionally, then he is ready to face the world alone. And the fruit? What hope does he have for the fruit. The fruit depends on some other power. At that time, I was ready to face the poisonous snake to take out the letters. I had thrown the stick away. Whether I embraced death or survived and was born again, there was no concern for me. But I believed that I would first kill the snake with the stick and then pick up the letters. Only on this firm belief did I decide to go into the well.

The younger brother was crying, and the meaning of his crying was that death was calling me, although he didn’t say it in words. In fact, death was sitting in the well in a living and naked form, but to confront that naked death, I too had to become naked. The younger brother also became naked. One cloth for me, one for the younger brother, one gram scale, five cloths tied to the ears—with some ropes, it was enough for the depth of the well. We tied the cloths to each other and, pulling them strongly, tried to see if the knots were tight. I didn’t leave any trick from my side. I tied a stick to one end of the cloth and threw it into the well. I gave the other end to the younger brother. The younger brother was only eight years old, so I tied the cloth tightly to the deeng (that piece of wood on which the cart rests) and, pulling it strongly, told him to hold it firmly. I started going into the well with the help of the cloth. The younger brother started crying. I gave him the assurance ${ }^{1}$ that as soon as I reach the bottom of the well, I will kill the snake, and my belief was also the same. Because before this, I had killed many snakes

1. Assurance, promise

. So, I had no fear of the snake at all while going into the well. I considered killing it with my left hand as a game.

When I was four or five gaz away from the ground level of the well, I looked down carefully. My mind went blank. The snake had spread its hood and was raising one hand upwards. The lower part of the tail and the part near the tail were on the ground, and the upper half was raised, waiting for me. The stick was tied below, and it was moving here and there due to my descent. Perhaps, seeing me descend, the snake ${ }^{2}$ sat in a position to give a fatal blow. As the cobra plays the flute and the black snake gets angry, spreads its hood, stands up, and gives a hiss to cause injury, exactly in the same way, the snake was ready. Its opponent ${ }^{3}$—me—was holding the cloth with both hands. The cloth was tied to the deeng, so it was hanging in the middle of the well, and I had to descend only in the middle of the ground level of the well. We assumed that the snake would not attack from a distance of one and a half to two feet, and if the snake stood at that distance, it would give a blow. Remember, the diameter of a shallow well is very small. Below, it would not be more than one and a half gaz. In such a situation, I could stay at a maximum distance of four feet from the snake, but only when the snake tried to stay away from me, but descending was in the middle of the well, because my means was hanging in the middle. It could not be killed by hanging from above. Descending was necessary. It could not climb up due to fatigue. So far, I had not decided to show my back to my opponent. If I did that, how could I climb up without descending on the ground level of the well—I started descending slowly. As I descended inch by inch, my single-mindedness ${ }^{4}$ increased. I had an idea ${ }^{1}$. I placed my feet against the wall on both sides of the well. As soon as I placed my feet against the wall, some mud

1. One who causes harm, one who injures 2. Opponent, enemy 3. Steady-minded, attentive 4. Method, means

fell down, and the snake spat and hit it with its mouth. My feet also came off the wall, and my legs remained hanging at a right angle from the waist, but it was understood that the distance from the snake and the method of descending on the perimeter of the well had become clear. I slightly shifted my feet from the edge of the well, and with a few pushes, I stood on the other side of the well, about one and a half gaz away—on the ground level of the well. My eyes became four. Perhaps, I recognized each other. They are called chakshushrava ${ }^{2}$. I myself was becoming chakshushrava. It seemed that other senses gave their strength to the eyes with compassion. My eyes were fixed on the hood of the snake to see in which direction it would attack. The snake had given a charming look. Perhaps, it was waiting for my attack, but the thought and hope on the basis of which I decided to go into the well were like flowers in the sky. Human guesses and future plans sometimes turn out to be so false and opposite. As soon as the snake became real, the impossibility of my plan and hope seemed to me. There was no place to swing the stick. There was enough space to swing a stick or lathi, but the snake could be hit with a stick, but it seemed like standing on the tip of a cannon. If the hood or the part near it was not pressed, then it would certainly turn and cut, and even if there was any possibility of pressing it near the hood, how could it lift the two letters that had fallen near it and were lying flat, and one was towards me. I had descended only to take the letters. Both of us stood on our four feet ${ }^{3}$. At that position, I stood there for four or five minutes. Both sides were waiting, but my waiting was weak. If somewhere the snake hit me, I—if it was not too much—would catch it, twist it, and kill it, but it would certainly inject its liquid poison accurately ${ }^{1}$ into my body and take me along with it. So far, the snake had not attacked, so I also

1. One who causes harm, one who injures 2. Opponent, enemy 3. Steady-minded, attentive 4. Method, means

decided to refrain from pressing it with the stick. It was also not appropriate to do so. Now the question was how to lift the letters. There was only one way. The letters should be pulled towards the stick from the snake. If the snake broke, there would be no harm. I had a kurta, but no cloth to press the hood of the snake by turning its mouth towards it. To kill or to do absolutely nothing—there were two paths. The first was beyond my strength. I had to reluctantly follow the second path.

As soon as I took the stick and started moving it towards the right side of the snake towards the letter that had fallen on the right side, the hood of the snake turned towards the back. Slowly, I moved the stick towards the letter, and as soon as the letter reached near, a black lightning-like hiss accompanied by the stick fell on it. A tremor occurred in the heart, and the hands did not obey the command. The stick fell off. I don’t know how much I jumped up. Without knowing, I jumped like that. When I jumped, I saw that some sticky substance was stuck at three or four places on the tip of the stick. That was poison. The snake seemed to have presented its strength as a certificate, but I had already doubted ${ }^{2}$ its ability from before. There was no need for that certificate. The snake had repeatedly hissed and hit the stick three or four times. That stick was insulted for the first time in this way, or perhaps the snake was mocking it.

Meanwhile, the younger brother, hearing the hissing and the noise of my jumping and then standing there again, understood that my work was over and the bond of brotherhood had been broken by the hissing and the noise. He thought that I had fallen due to the snake’s attack. His kind heart was struck by my suffering and separation. The pain of fraternal affection was hurt. His cry came out.

The younger brother’s suspicion was not unfounded, but the hissing and the noise increased my courage a little. Again, I tried to lift the cloth in the same way. This time, the snake also attacked and clung to the stick. The stick did not fall from the hand, but

1. To tie, to bind 2. One who accepts

I hesitated, or was frightened or terrified, and, while hissing loudly ${ }^{1}$, touched the tail part of the snake with my hands. Oh, how cold it was! I gave a jerk to the stick. If the other side of the stick had hit it earlier, then I would have fallen on the snake while jumping, and I would not have been saved, but when life exists, thousands of ways to save oneself come out. That was divine grace. As the stick moved towards me, the positions of my body and the snake changed. I immediately picked up the letters and postcards. I tied the letters to the edge of the cloth, and the younger brother pulled them up.

It was also very difficult to lift the stick from near the snake. The snake was sitting openly, pressing it. The victory was mine, but I had already lost my mark. If I moved forward, the snake would attack ${ }^{2}$ on my hand, so I took a handful of mud from the edge of the well and threw it towards its right side so that it would hit it, and I took the stick from the left side with the other hand, but in the process, it also attacked from the other side. If the stick had not been in the middle, its teeth would have broken in the leg.

Now climbing up was not a difficult task. It was not difficult for me to climb 36 feet only with the help of my hands, without placing my feet anywhere. I can climb 15 to 20 feet without the help of my feet, only with the help of my hands; less, not more. But at that age of eleven years, I climbed 36 feet. My arms were tired. My chest was swollen. I was panting. But inch by inch, with the strength of my arms, I climbed up. If the hands slip, what would happen, it is difficult to guess. After climbing up, I fell down weakly and remained there for a while. I shook my body to throw off the dust and put on the cloth-kurta. Then, with the help of the boy from Kishanpur, who had seen me climbing up, I made him promise ${ }^{3}$ that he would not tell anyone about the well incident, and we went ahead.

1. To tie, to bind 2. To attack, to injure 3. To warn repeatedly, to caution

In 1915, after passing the matriculation, I told my mother about this incident. My mother hugged me with wide-open eyes, as a bird hides its chicks under its wings ${ }^{1}$.

How good those days were! At that time, there was no rayfal, there was a stick, and the prey of the stick—at least the snake—was not more interesting and terrible than the prey of the rayfal.

Thought Questions

1. What fear did the author have in his mind while returning home when his brother called him?

2. Why did the group of children going to school to Makhanpur throw stones into the well on the way?

3. What mood of the author is indicated by the statement “The snake hissed or not, whether the stone hit it or not, I don’t remember this thing now”?

4. What reasons did the author have to decide to take out the letters from the well?

5. What methods did the author adopt to distract the snake’s attention?

6. Write a description of the courage involved in taking out the letters from the well in your own words.

7. What topics of childish pranks can be known after reading this passage?

8. Explain the meaning of “Human guesses and future plans sometimes turn out to be so false and opposite.”

9. Explain the meaning of this line in the context of the passage: “The fruit depends on some other power.”

10.