5.

The Mark of Vishnu

Khushwant Singh

Khushwant Singh (1915- ), the

prominent scholar, journalist
author, was born in Hadali
(now in Pakistan).
He was
educated at d
ernment College, Lahore and St Stephen's College, Delhi. After studs
RW at the Inner Temple, London, he returned to India and practise
the Lahore High Court for some time. He edited Yojana, The at
Illustrat
Weekty Of India, National Herald and Hindustan Times. He was a ated
ber of the Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1986. He was mem
em-
Bhushan by Government of India in 1974. Protesting
the awarded the Padma
ot the
Golden Temple in Amritsar the
by Indian
against the siege
award. He was army, he
returned the
honoured with the 'Honest Man of the Year
labh International
in the year 2000, the
award by Su-
and the Padma Punjab
Vibhushan Award by the Government
Rattan Award in 2006
In his novel
Train to Pakistan
of India in 2007.
ing of thousands of (1956), he describes the trauma and
Hindu, Sikh and Muslim families after suffer
The Mark
of Vishnu and Other the partition.
af God and Other Stories, The History of Sikhs, The
Voice
Shall Not Hear the Stories, A Bride for the Sahib and Other
Indians, Women and Nightingale, Black Jasmine, Tragedy of Stories, 1
An Men in My Life,
Truth,
Punjab, We
Love and a Little
Autobiography,
My Doorstep, The
Burial at Sea, Paradise
and Other Stories,
Malice:
tant works. Ilustrated History of the Sikhs are Death at
some of his impor-
Extremely frank, unbiased
fights relentlessly, in all his and deeply compassionate, Khushwant
lence and writings, against all kinds of Singh
injustice. Yet,
with wit and sarcasm. interestingly, is known for fine.
he fanaticism, vio-
humour
laced
In The Mark of Vishnu', he relates
tious worshipper of a cobra the story of a
man who is a
and this,
death. unfortunately, leads to hissupersti- tragic

This is for the Kala Nag, said

into the saucer. 'Every night I Gunga Ram, pouring the mil
leave it outside
the wall and it's gone by the the hole
morning. near r

Perhaps it is the cat, we youngsters

suggested.
Cat!' said Gunga Ram with contempt. 'No cat g0e
that hole. Kala Nag lives there. As long I give
him mina
he
 THE MARK OF VISHNU 51

You can all go about with

anyone in this house.
bite.
will not and play where youlike.
bare feet
not going tO tolerate any patronage from Gunga
We were
Ram.
old Brahmin,'I said. 'Don't you know
You're a stupid drink a sau-
snakes don't rink
drir milk? At least, one couldn't
snakes don't that a snake eats only
The teacher told us
cerful every day. saw a grass snake
which had just
We
severai days.
once in
stuck like a lump in its throat and took
It
Swallowed a frog. down its tail. We've got doz-
dissolve and go
several days to methylated spirit. Why, last month
them in the lab
in could
ens of s n a k e - c h a r m e r which
one from a
the teacher bought another head with a pair of eyes at
the
It had the jar.
run both ways.
seen the fun
when it was put in
have teacher put it in
tail. You should one in the lab so the
There wasn't an empty caught its two ends with
had a Russel's viper. He the lid
one which
it in the jar, and quickly put
dropped round and round
a pair offorceps, as it went
absolute storm
was an
on. There
viper into little pieces."
the decayed
in the glass tearing horror.
shut his eyes in pious
Gunga Ram Yes, you will.
it one day.
You will pay for Ram. He, like
all good
with Gunga
It was no u s e
arguing Vishnu and Siva,
of Brahma,
in the Trinity was most
Hindus, believed destroyer. Of these he'
and
the creator,
preserver,
painted a V mark on
he
devoted to Vishnu.
Every morning honour the god.
Al-
to
sandalwood paste
his forehead in illiterate and
full of superstition.
he w a s snake or s c o r -
though a Brahmin, even if it was of a
w a s sacred,
To him, all life saw one
he quickly pushed
Whenever he
wasps
pion o r centipede. kill it. He picked up
that w e might rackets and
looked
it away for fear badminton
about with
our
stung. It
never
we knocked S o m e t i m e s he got
wings. dangerous the
animal,
after their damaged The more
shake his faith. existence. Hence
seemed to
Ram was to its
Gunga Kala
devoted who w a s the
the above all, the cobra,
more

for snakes;
the regard
Nag.
 52 FAMOUs INDIAN STORIES

We will kill your Kala Nag if we see him."

I won't let you. It's laid a hundred eggs and if you kill t
all the eggs will become cobras and the house will be full of
them. Then what will you do?
Well catch them alive and send them to Bombay. They
milk them there for anti-smake-bite serum. They pay
two
rupees for a live cobra. That makes two hundred rupees
straightaway.
Yourdoctors must have udders. I never saw a snake have
any. But don't you dare touch this one. It is a
is hooded. I've seen it. It's
phannyar- it
three hands long. As for its hood!"
Gunga Ram opened the palms of his hands and his head
Swayed from side to side. You should see it sunning itself
on the lawn.
That just proves what a liar The phannyar is the
you are.
male, so it couldn't have laid the hundred eggs. You must
have laid the eggs
yourself.
The party burst into loud
Must be Gunga Ram's
laughter
We'lleggs. soon have a hundred
Gunga Rams.
Gunga Ram wasS squashed. It was the fate of
to be servant a
constantly squashed. But
household make fun of him was having
the children of the
too much even for
Ram. They were
constantly making him look smallGunga
with
their new-fangled ideas.
They never read their holy books.
Nor even what the Mahatma said about
non-violence.
just shot-guns to kill birds and the jars of methylated It was
to drowm snakes. Gunga Ram would spirit
stick to his faith in
sacredness of life. He would feed and protect snakes the
snakes were the lowest of God's creatures on because
could love them, instead of killing them, you earth. If vou
proved your
point.
What the point was which Gunga Ram wanted to
prove
was not clear. He just proved it by leaving the saucerful of
 THE MARK OF VISEINUU 53

snake hole
snake
hole every night and finding it gone inthe
the

milkby
mornings.
Kala Nag. The monsoons had burst with
morn day saw we
rained in the night. The earth
which
it
it had
ha
fury and
One
and
heat of the sum-
]
their
irsty under the withering
thirsty
and croaked.
laindry little pools frogs
had crowded with life. In
crowded
cen-
sun
was

wa covered
was
crawling worms,
with
nddy ground to show
mer ground
muddy Grass had begun
he velvetty lady-birds. The
and
bright and shiny green.
ipedes,
ipe
leaves glistened
lea patch
and the banana hole. He sat in an open
banana

and
flooded Kala
Ka
flooded Nag's in the sunlight.
ain had
rain black hood glistened
had
His shiny round and fat
as
and
the lawn. feet in length,
on
big-almost Six
He was
mywrist.

King
Cobra. Let's get him.' was
The ground
Looks likea much ofa
chance.
water.
have full of
did not
Kala Nag
were
holes and
gutters
and all the
slippery home to help. before
was not at Kala Nag
Ram surrounded
Gunga we turned
sticks,
Armed with long us his eyes
When he saw
Then like
scented danger. on all sides.
he hissed and spat
even
trees.
fire and he the banana
as red as towards had
started about. He
Kala Nag slipped
lightning and he mid-
w a s too
muddy him in the
The ground stick caught to a
when a reduced him
five yards blows
hardly gone back. A rain of with blood
broke his splashed
dle and and white jelly,
black
squishy-squashy undamaged. Kala
was still 'We'll take
His head o n e ofus.
and mud.
the hood, yelled
Don't damage and litted
stomach
Nag to school. the
cobra's
biscuit tin
a stick under him in a large
So we slid We put bed.
of the pole. tin under a
end the
him on the We hid
for him to get
with string. Ram waiting
tied it up the
and near
Gunga milk for
stayed take any
At night I you
going to
'Aren't
of milk.
his saucer
manner.

Kala Nag tonight?" bad-tempered

Ram in a
answered
Gunga
Yes,'
 54 FAMOus INDIAN SrORIES

You go to bed.
He did not want any more argument on the subject.

He won't need the milk any more:

Gunga Ram paused.
Why?
Oh, nothing. There are:so many frogs about. hey must
taste better than your milk. You never put any sugar in it,
any way.
The next morning Gunga Ram brought back the saucer
with the milk still in it. He looked sullen and suspicious.
I told you snakes like better than
frogs milk.
Whilst we changed and had breakfast Gunga Ram stayed
near us. The school bus came and we climbed into it with the
tin. As the bus started we held out the tin to Gunga Ram.
Here's your Kala Nag. Safe in this box. We
put him in spirit.'
are going to
We left him standing
bus.
speechless, staring at the departing
There was great excitement in the school. We were a set
of four brothers, known for
it again.
our
toughness. We had proved
A King Cobra.'
'Six feet long'
Phannyar.
The tin was
presented to the science teacher.
It was on the teacher's table, and
waited for him to
we
open it and admire our skill. The teacher
pretended to be
uninterested and set us some problems to work
deliberate show of being bored he fetched on,. With a
a jar with a banded krait
his forceps
forceps and
lying curled in and
spirit. began hum and untie the cordmuddy
He to
around
methylated
As soon the cord was loosened the lid
flew into thebox the
just missing the teacher's nose. There was Kala air,
eves burnt like red-hot coals and his hood was Nag. His
tight and.
damaged. With a loud hiss he attacked the teach un-
ace.
 THE MARK OF VISHNu 55
55

pushed himself back on the chair and fell over.

teacher
The
landed
on the floor and stared at the cobra, paralysed
He T h e boys stood up on their desks and yelled hys-
with fear:

terically
surveyed the scene with his bloodshot eyes. His
Kala Nag
darted in and out excited. He spat furiously
tongue
fork
then made a bid for freedom. He fell out of the tin on
and
broken in several
to the
floor with a loud plop. His back was
When
nlaces and he dragged himself painfully to the door.
to the threshold
he drew himself up once again with
he got
out to face another danger.
his hood spread
Ram with a saucer
Outside the classroom stood Gunga
As soon as he saw Kala Nag come up
he went
and jug of milk.
on his knees. He poured
the milk into the saucer and
down
the threshold. With hands folded in prayer
placed it near
for forgiveness.
he bowed his head to the ground begging
the cobra hissed and spat and bit Gunga
In desperate fury,
head-then with great effort dragged him-
Ram all over the
out of view.
self into a gutter and wriggled face. He
with his hands covering his
Gunga Ram collapsed
The poison blinded him instantly. Within
groaned in agony.
minutes he turned pale and blue, and foam appearedd
a few of blood.
forehead were little drops
in hismouth. On his
with his handkerchief. Underneath
These the teacher wiped
where the Kala Nag had dug his teeth.
was the V mark