It all began with my fear for that crawling reptile. they called it the snake. And I? the small dragon with deathly powers!
And one day I met Gopal. He teased me with his mesmerising friendship with the little dragons. For they were all around him and he was their care-taker. The guys called him the technical assistant though! what is so technical about taking a snake in your hands, knowing where it will lash next and judging their dumb looks(he told me snakes are both deaf and dumb)?
i was on an assignment i had burdened myself with. It made little sense to others and all the more mysterious to myself (when did i last pronounce `snake').
he narrated to me all those creepy stories about the little dragons. They are visually alert. they lash at those things that move (before their eyes!yaar). And how long did i stand still in that room of cages, snake cages to be precise?
Gopal knew much more about snakes, than what i knew about my enemies(those creepy ones only). It wasn't the text books, it was years of friendship with them that taught him all that. They have bitten him, once or twice, he told me. the pain is no longer there , even in his wildest memories, he added. just the scars.
those photos which we took, he and his creepy friends-it haunted me.
Nearly two months passed before I heard of Gopal again. Though his office was nearer to my home. (and I always remembered the creepy ones when i took the curvy bend near his office in my auto every night)
he again mesmerised me. he had been dead for one month and those little dragons still live on. they said he had ended life after a bitter fight with his wife. does anybody care? But gopal n suicide? he who loved the venom in the dragons as much as their innocence(he always told me humans are more venomous)
that night, i forgot the creepy ones. When my auto took the curvy bend, gopal smiled, ``these snakes simply charm you. try to remove your fear.'' he said. Death is more charming, though!!!
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