4.THE LOYAL MONGOOSE

Let the well – advised be done
Ill-advised leave unbegun;
Else, remorse will be let loose,
As with lady and mongoose

In the outskirts of the city vijayanagaram lived a Brahman and his wife Lakshmi. Married for four years they had been craving for a child right from their wedding.. In the mean while Lakshmi became fond of a baby mongoose, which used to come to their house searching for food. What started as a friendly gesture of feeding the imp little mongoose with morsels of food, turned out to be a lasting affection and soon the Jivan as the mongoose was named became their pet and a member of the household. The neighbors were quick to comment a mongoose is a very unusual pet. But Lakshmi grew affection to the little one, which filled many a lonely hour of her. She used to put it on her lap and quietly fondle it in her leisure hours and feed it small morsels of food. Soon the mongoose took to her as its mother and nestled with her and drew its comfort.

As the days rolled in to months, and spring gave way to winter and tiny little leaves started sprouting in the trees around, birds started chirping around heralding the new lease of life nature ushers every year, Lakshmi suddenly found her stomach getting heavy. Soon she discovered she is carrying a baby. In course of time she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

She and her husband named the boy Shravana and started giving all the love and care to the long awaited offspring.
Everyday she bathed the child, anointed it with oil, decorated its eyes with freshly prepared `kajal’, fed the baby with flowing milk from her breast, covered it with soft linen and put it in the cradle for a sound sleep.
Now our little mongoose Jivan was equally fascinated to have the little one at home. By then the baby mongoose had grown old by three summers and considered it to be a loyal and responsible member of the household. It took affection to the little one as its own younger brother and kept a watchful eye on the little one when ever the Brahman and Lakshmi went around for their errands.

The little one too enjoyed the company of the mongoose. Whenever its mother left him in the cradle and went for her jobs, it peeped out of the cradle to see if Jivan is around and got reassured by its presence. When in playful mood it gurgled and laughed and beat its chubby hands and legs as Jivan put its shining nose and tickled it through the cradle bars.

One day, the baby was than eight new moons (eight months) old. Lakshmi as usual bathed and fed the baby in the morning, put it in the cradle and called out to the Brahman, her lord and master ` my lord I am going to the river to fetch some water. You please keep an eye on Shravana, so saying off she went to fetch the water from the river, which was ten minutes walk from the house.

No sooner had she gone, the Brahman remembered some chore to attend and absent mindedly, forgetting his wife’s request went out of the house.

His tummy filled with milk the child was sleeping soundly in the cradle; the mongoose was lying under the cradle keeping an ever-watchful eye for the safety of the baby.

Now Laksmi and the Brahman were staying in a wooded area of the village. The place was always teaming with life. Birds, rodents, squirrels, insects and even serpents were a common sight. At that time the black cobra of the neighborhood was searching for food. With a rumbling stomach it went slithering around stealthily, around the anthills, burrows of small animals and now over the wall of Lakshmis house and in it came to the wooded enclave surrounding the house. With no luck anywhere it advanced forward and could get the faint smell of the flesh in the chambers of the sleeping child and the mongoose. It moved swiftly and stealthily and entered the room of little Shravana. The mongoose spotted it when it had just poised itself to strike the sleeping child. Seeing its archenemy poised to strike the little one the mongoose was at once greatly alarmed and annoyed, it went in a sweep and struck the cobra with its sharp claws. A fierce fight ensued; the mongoose rolled and clawed the venomous cobra while the cobra was trying to strike the mongoose with its poison fangs. It was a pitched battle both fighting staking their life. Finally the mongoose came out victorious clawing and biting the snake with its claws and sharp teeth. It was indeed a bloody battle and the victorious mongoose drenched in blood ran out of the house to greet Lakshmi when it heard her steps approaching.
Laksmi was coming home balancing a pot of water in the head and another in her waist, she was thinking about the chores to be done around the house, when she spotted the bloody sight of Jivan the mongoose. She at once got alarmed and jumped to the conclusion in her absence Jivan has mangled her baby. The words of her neighbors flashed to her mind, the comments of an unusual pet and how they commented when the baby was born, `Lakshmi, it may be wise for you to go and leave this wild beast in the forest lest it harms your dear child’, all that came rushing in to her mind. In a fit of fury and extreme anxiety that her child has been harmed, she cried at the mongoose `you wicked one, you betrayed my trust, you attacked my baby’ so saying she threw the pitcher with water on the head of the mongoose and killed it instantly.
When she entered the house crying in anguish, she saw the sight of a big cobra mutilated and killed right under the cradle of her dear son. She immediately realised her folly, it was her Jivan, which protected her child against the venomous cobra. Oh! Lo! how hasty she was to come to a conclusion and suspect her own trustworthy Jivan as the one to have harmed her son.

Yes one should always look, see, enquire and think about and not jump in to hasty conclusions which like in Lakshmis case can make you repent in leisure.