THE METHODIC PYTHON

The lethargic python had finished its food and wriggled a short distance before going to sleep behind the walnut chair. Its present day mate, the viper, moved about agitatedly and tried to figure out what to do with this huge and bulky torso that had by now reduced itself to three distinct stages, namely, eating/ tasting, wriggling and sleeping. She was conscious that she had moved in with him because she knew that he had some extra food left every day and that since he was asleep most of the time, or wriggling, as usual, that would have spared her the ordeal of having to put up with husbandly rubbish for an undue amount of time. And since she knew that he had by then acquired methodical habits,  that his schedule was already so tight, that he wouldn’t be able to wriggle away too far, but would soon fall asleep, with his mouth half open and bits of smelly saliva oozing out of it. It was of some convenience to her because she had left home for some purpose and did not want to explain things plainly to him till there was a better understanding between them, and also, till she was ready for it. During the initial phase, she had found it somewhat comfortable, because the arrangement seemed  that perfect and she knew that the python was a nice and hospitable person, and very well versed in all things to do with worldenomics, which made things  much easier for her. She had left home in undue haste, had very little luggage, and had just barged into that house which she knew was of a kindred person, a friend. He was also not too hesitant to lent her the comfort of his house, because he could easily figure out her need for a place to stay, and seemed to know that she did not wan’t to explain things too much at that point.

The python had a little one, and his wife had left him for some reason, which also gave her some opportunity to baby sit, which also gave her some alibi to be useful, without showing off too much. The viper knew that she looked thin and had a somewhat workable poison sac, which she had acquired after her rude awakening into the world. She had tried to maintain a very pleasant countenance all through her young years, and was mild and quite attractive in her own ways. But then, somehow or the other the world had rudely jolted her out of her complacency  and it was no more possible for her to live in her own home without risking, what she had then come to realize, was her own freedom. This was the general context in which many people, especially women had to move out from their own houses in the area to better pastures in which at least some modicum of freedom could be maintained. She also had other reasons to keep it a secret, because her father was an influential person in the police force, and hence she couldn’t easily move out and about without risking being recaptured by the family and security networks. She knew that she was safe there, and that the secret could not be divulged without undue risk, and that no other family would easily take her in, but that the python would do so, not out of any great philanthropic intent, but because he had some sense of propriety and would understand the predicament of a young woman who had to leave her home and was not to be seen in the open. The python, as some of her friends had observed was not too shy at taking food, and so it had some imagined prospect of  having a dish of viper if it offers itself, though he was averse to having any without due consent. His wife, she had come to learn, was still around, but since they had already escaped the ‘family’ business, and had settled on somewhat libertine grounds.

For her, she was not very sure why she was there also, since the people who had instructed her to go there  were also very secretive and could not further divulge much, considering the tough situation that was at hand. She had escaped home to avoid the prospect of the caste based barter of marriage, also secretly toying the idea of meeting her lover, who she knew did really like her though she had never talked to him privately, even though they knew each other somewhat through common friends. She had expected her common friends who were also vipers like/unlike her to help her out on this count, but the situation was such that this lover of hers, a person of some repute in the county was looked up to as a valorous lover, well known for his frivolity, frugality and lasciviousness, apart from being a jack the ripper of all sorts of cultural antiquary, mockery and the chancellor of adultery. So, most of their common friends were also in love with him even while otherwise married, and were not very eager to divulge much information on this count, or felt that he was too lecherous to be accommodated, or took it as her private issue which had nothing to do with them. She had expected her father the police officer to do whatever was possible within his purview to stop them, and had no illusions that there was any limit to his brutality, because she had known him from her childhood and was well aware of his hierarchic micropolitics and potential  for the most violent genocidal behaviour , if his caste and family honour was at stake.

The python prided himself for having wriggled through all the four rooms of the house, though the viper found herself more or less confined to the babies room, virtually stranded there without a second place to go, and the by now monotonous task of feeding, washing and clothing him. She soon realized that the python had his steady flow of eateries, brought from the choisest baker’s and confectioner’s of the county,  and had also  developed an elaborate taste for boring academic music, thought about himself as a connoisseur of the elite arts, and had developed the habit of giving satsangs in his special room dedicated to himself. He also prided himself of being almost everything in the political, social and cultural universe, carrying a veritable sneer on his face about those very people for whom he seemed to be arguing the case, as well as for those opposed, which she found to be somewhat boring and stiflingly offensive. One day when the baby was sleeping and she trying to figure out the complications of the situation by dismantling the baby’s bicycle and trying to reassemble  it, her elder brother who was a doctor by profession and was somewhat licentious as regards caste and sexual morals sent her a message that he would like to see her. On her advice, he came around while the python was in his after food siesta, they exchanged a few words secretively, and her brother explained to her a few things.

“One thing is sure , dear sister, as long as you remain a virgin, has the image of a chaste person, and is yet unconnected to your lover, our father would never let you go  to him- especially because he is involved in some  movement for equality , which he abhors like anything. And I have made some enquiries about your lover, he seems to be a very sexually licentious person, almost a pervert. So it seems to be a tough situation for you- on the one hand, even if you come back to the family you know how it is with him-  he hates you now like anything for having destroyed the family name, and you know that you wouldn’t be safe with him at home also because he may well  kill you off just to prove himself right and to regain some of his lost pride. And I know that you would not like to do it also. The condition of your lover, for all that I know, is absolutely tough- because father with his resources has mobilized all possible forces to avert the future occurance of such an event in the  entire country, and the many worlds,  and is holding him in tough conditions by mobilizing all people around him, and even within the family, restricting movement and contacts  and spreading all sorts of rumours around him and so on. As for your condition, he seems to be little aware of it, and I don’t even know whether he will be ready to take you in even if you meet him.”

“That he will, I am sure”- she said without further thinking about the actual dimensions of the problem.”

“And you know- many women are actually interested in him, and he is also aware of it, and may even be said to have some interest in them, though he has not actually taken any, and I think he is not very well off, and doesn’t even  seem to have any intention to be well off, even though he seems to be somewhat well educated, which are all situations very complicated for you. Moreover,  I have heard that he abhors chastity in a woman, because he seem to have some fear about giving the pain of the first penetration to a woman. Coming to think about it, I can also see that the easiest way out for you will be to make it public that you are a woman of loose morals, which, when it becomes public will make your father discard you, and will make him move away from your lover also, since it will seem unnecessary to pursue it any further, since the damage is already done. If this can be done, then we can also try to move in and find him for you, this lover of yours, in whose house, as we know, his political allies have  induced a person as his wife for protection and control without his knowledge , because they had come to know that some very affluent people antagonistic to his politics were trying to destroy him by destroying all his connections etc., and also that many women had been seen roaming around in his county enquiring about his whereabouts- which they found scandalous and highly perverse. “

“Say who?” – the door suddenly opened and the python entered, looked  around and silently withdrew from the scene with glaring eyes and a suspicious sneer on his face.

The viper and her brother found themselves in a ridiculous position, because she had intended to introduce her brother to the python if he had come around, but now, since he had withdrawn so fast, felt  that he may have misunderstood them. The viper did go around looking for him, but surprisingly for her he seemed to have left the house for them and moved out for the sake of  civility for the time being. They both felt disturbed that they could not explain things better to him, especially because they were brother and sister and felt that it was wrong that they  were misunderstood .

But then, as for the python, it was obvious that all understanding was at least partly a misunderstanding also, and that very often an understanding could only be made by clearing up some of the misunderstanding. And he thought that the   lack of understanding between him and viper could be easily cleared up when she was ready for it, and that till then he could wait, since it could not be rushed. He was curious about why she had come to their house, in particular, unless there was some reason which prioritized him over others as an option for a woman in her condition. He had no illusions about himself in this regard, because he was well aware of the flows of his own desires and from that had made certain observations about the world  which he knew somewhat well by having gone through all the rooms of the house. He had no pretenses of his being an angel, was a inquisitive/complacent teacher, somewhat perverted himself [which he tried to hide a bit] from the public by keeping some decorum and some timings, like holding his vegetarian eating habits and timings perfect, [though the bakers knew well that he preferred the dishes when some egg, micro organisms, worms or even beaf was secretly added to it without his knowledge.], his satsangs were mostly done in the evenings, and the discourses went on till about nine. After which he had home food and retirement benefits, as usual.

Earlier on, in his initial years he had tried all sorts of philanthropic ad- ventures including UG philanthropy and e-will, but had soon found that however hard he tried nobody seemed to have believed him beyond a point, except for the bakers and confectioners, who also, as it seems had certain vested interests in him, because he was a good eater, and at least some of the dishes enjoyed him. For the rest of the world his satsangs and taped conversations were a matter for regular fun and the frolicking sounds made good for the bad music that he played out of redundant aesthetic ‘taste’ which he had acquired from some of the marquises of elite dens.

As for the rubies and pearls around him, as he would call his women folk, the python was a man of some inspiration for some time, but after a certain period they usually discovered too many consistency problems  in his arguments, because he obviously preferred certain shapes to others, opted for certain comforts and privileges which he did not want everybody to share, and so on. The musical community abhorred his taste for bhajans, and for Meera bhajans in particular, since every one around him including Meera had realized that he had a flavor for eulogies and a deep hatred for plain truths, which showed somewhat clearly that though he viewed himself as a liberal, this Kishen was not too liberal with his Gopi’s nor with other claimants to their favours, be it from his own tribe or elsewhere. Seeing that the most high brow of all art accrued to him there were at least some people around him who had started to shave off their brows altogether and go in for all sorts of ‘vulgarities’ and ‘inanities’ developing such bad taste that even an ostrich- which was said to be capable of devouring stones, thorns and broken glass- would have found itself to be too tame. But their logic was clear enough- they preferred gaali beejaas to eulogies, did not think that their taste buds were anymore developed than that of other people, and had a deep suspicion of their own ‘tastes’ so that they picked up a new taste for something or the other from somewhere or somebody every once in a while, and had no qualms at looking for it everywhere, including in drugs, porn or whatever they came across. One such guy would constantly qoute a bit from a book of poetry which he knew was an opiate of the masses, since it said plainly in its title “Leaves of Grass”:

‘I contradict myself,

I am many,

I contain multitudes”.

The viper looked around into the room and wondered whether she should try her fangs and poison sac on Mr. Python, who would have beaten a Pynchon in his game no doubt, if only he had bothered to write a novel  or two in/with his tasty tongue. By now she had also lost her initial admiration for him because she had found him to be a windbag of definite proportions, no different from the other locally available ones, or even worser for its pretensions- not any less, not any more. She had found more details about his coiffure while staying with him, because after the chance meeting with her brother she noticed certain attitudinal changes in him, felt his burning eyes on her skin, a definite change in his gait, and could hear a definite murmur going on in his head. “Who is she? Where is she coming from ? Why is she here? What are her future plans?’  which she expected him to ask her any moment, even though  she could soon see that he would rather avoid the uneasy anticedents of such questions by opting  not to ask them.

And one day, out of schedule, while she was in the bath and the baby was sleeping, the viper heard a certain rustling in the room, and as she came out o the bath in thin stockings and a towel tied around her hair, she found him in the room, gazing intently at the kid.  She felt relieved that he had decided to break the ice between them and found his presence non obtrusive, because in front of him she now felt a comfort as when she was [she imagined] with her lover, and the  nudity of her thighs and angles did not matter.

‘Huh, huh! “ she said. He turned around slowly to look at her with his greedy eyes, and she could detect a movement between his thighs, as if he were naked below his dhoti.  She tried to take away her eyes and move on to the clothesline, and immediately felt that he had felt a regret for it, for having given away a secret intent which he did not want to publish. It w as then that his wife came in, found them together, and laughed out aloud:

“ So you are still into the two-some game at home, while we all seem to have moved well beyond that school time obsession.”

She turned over to the viper and said: “so you can also move on now, lady, because you know that you cannot take in here a brother of yours, or a lover, and if anybody has to be taken it is him, and maybe the baby boy, for whom also he thinks that you are a plaything. “

“Haha” the viper laughed.” And he still has not asked you the questions that you would like him to have asked, and you have never attended one of his satsangs!”

“I am not altogether innocent,” she said- for I have overheard a few of them while I was watering the plants, and knew it to be no different from a Nun’s  priests tale!”

I remember having read this line somewhere: “Satan dresses up in a high-priests garb in the saintliness gained from his sins”, - so that his work is made easier.” The wife added in, breaking a big lie that she had held in her hand into pieces.

“I am removing this poison sac from myself now” the viper added,” for I had no intention to carry it, but I knew you  had one, even if you have seldom shown it. And now that I have seen it, I know you too have a poison sac and a forked tongue, like all others, and other people also have seen it. Now I am trying to change it into a honey sac and I am trying to move on further, because this seems to be a useful device , for I am in love, and am seeking my lover.” She moved in closer to the python and gave him a kiss on his lips, right in front of his wife.

“Huh……….” He stepped back, taken aback and fuming a little for having been exposed to the world in a new light.

“I take back this honey sac which was given to me by god, this love for the other in which everything is permissible, and have by now removed all that was poisonous in me and in the world. Now I can kiss it with a new love, born out of pain and suffering, but still so sweet and beautiful. So now earth has become a paradise for me, and I am sure you will all meet me there soon.” She whispered.