Thank You Dear Snake!: A Collection of Short Stories

By Ben Koryun

Stories enliven our lives by adding something to our understandings about people, events, and places different from ours. As we read, we realize that though the people are different and so are the places, yet the events touch our hearts as if they were also our storiesif not in reality, at least in our fantasies. These are stories from another time and place and a world of which most people may not be aware even existed.

Balan is not a naughty child. He is innocent and naive, filled with energy and verve. His friends are not any different.

The other stories are real-life situations that one encounters in everyday life: stories of deceit, betrayal, selfishness, opportunism, and human frailties and also courage and loyalty. We may find ourselves as the perpetrators/victims or heroes in one form or another in the stories. Whatever it may be, I hope that the book will provide you good entertainment. And you would become a different person for having read it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Feb 12, 2015
• ISBN: 9781482844047

Ben Koryun

The author is a priest and psychologist with interest in farming, nature, and life. Most of the stories are set in a very special and small world, in a semi-urban setting away from the crowded city. Other stories are unique everyday life stories of common people from the world around.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Ben Koryun.

ISBN:      Hardcover   978-1-4828-4405-4

                Softcover    978-1-4828-4406-1

                eBook         978-1-4828-4404-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Partridge India

000 800 10062 62

www.partridgepublishing.com/india

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Thank you dear snake!

How was Trapper to know?

You cannot tie an elephant with a dog chain

Malathi, will you marry me?

Unexpected accuracy

Two Cats and the Cobra

Ansari

Just a Plantain Skin

The unsung hero

Love’s chance lost…

Goodbye

Rapo

The Father and the Girl

The loud enough prayer

The Mother

To my parents 702714

Preface

This collection of short stories is the result of my long cherished dream to write. I have been writing poems and essays for a long time. However, I never got to writing short stories mainly as I did not have the time to do so. About five years back when I started writing short stories I realized that I had a lot to write and if I did not publish the first batch I would never be able to fill in all the stories that were in my databank. This is how I finally decided to start the publication process.

These stories are twisted around to bring in themes of human interest and do not in any way reflect on the lives of any particular person. The events are based on life situations in various contexts as I grew up and as they occurred in my life as a priest and psychologist. Some are based on stories that I have heard from different sources, stories of ingratitude and deceit, or stories of helplessness and despair. I may have only added some color to the narratives to bring in the potency of human behavior. It is hoped that this initial venture would lead to greater efforts to bring in more naturalness to the stories and the reader will be able to enjoy the change of times and life as the juggernaut of history and time moved forward.

Acknowledgements

I have had the grace to be blessed by a sister and brother in law who really care for me and love me. My sister and her daughter Sera always encouraged me. Sera is the kind of person who cherishes me and indulges my writings whether they be poems or stories. My wife Jessy is my first critic who reads them all. Elizabeth my daughter in Christ is my ardent supporter. Geetha, Head of the Department, Mar Severios Teacher’s Training College, has encouraged me to write by reading my stories and poems. Most importantly my Diocesan Bishop, Rt.Rev. Geevarghese Mar Athanasius Episcopa, encouraged me on to write and publish my work.

I also acknowledge the many simple people who through their lives showed me the value of life, from the cobbler, to the day laborer, to the vegetable seller, all of these contributed to making me, me.

It is only befitting that I remember my parents who would buy me good books to read, from my childhood (I started with the Reader’s Digest, which I still enjoy), who showed me to love God’s world, the big and the small, who taught me to think expansively yet remain humble, who ingrained in me the love of God in their own unique way, through their role modeling.

Thank you dear snake!

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T hey lived in the valley surrounded by hills. There were date palms, mango and jamun trees all over the hills. Mostly there were the karvandah (bush plums from the Indian tropics, have some resemblance to cranberries) shrubs, and karvandah was a delight to be eaten in the summer vacation when ripe. The children Laly, Balan and Thomas were always intrigued by the hills and what lay beyond. Laly was Balan’s elder sister older to him by four years who kept aloof from the rough adventures of the younger boys, but who was always eager to know what they were up to. She was also very protective of her younger brother. At the top of the hill they had seen a large tree and something like the top of a tower just jutting out of the branches of the tree. At night they had seen people walk with red torches to the top and had been afraid as to who they were. Once or twice Thomas had seen someone flash the red torch light through the fence that separated the house from the hills and had screamed with all his strength chor, chor (robber, robber) only to realize that the people who shone the light were unworried about the noise and just continued with their shinning the torch. Thomas, age thirteen three years older to Balan, was the very young caretaker of the handsome, bachelor doctor who lived next door. The doctor had two dogs, in addition to the ability to emit long whistles in the morning. Balan had tried to imitate these whistles at times and enjoyed the thought that the doctor would have heard him do it.

Doctor C as they called him was always a mystery and had a girlfriend who would visit him once every week and they would together walk down the street. The life of Dr. C was considered as at a different level and no questions about him were ever asked of Thomas. Balan’s father was an officer but who loved farming. He used to cultivate vegetables and tapioca in the land surrounding their house. Balan’s family usually had friends from town who visited them once in a month. Their house was a big bungalow that had housed the British sahibs before Independence. The families would come in groups to enjoy the freedom that the big house and the mountainside offered and also to enjoy the freshly harvested tapioca, and fish that Balan’s father used to get from the sea. The children would gang up and together all would go up the hill to pluck karvandah. However, for all the courage, it was beyond them to even think of going up to the top of the hill to where the trees hid something so mysterious.

Balan and Thomas were very good friends and his parents did not mind that he was not of their status (Balan’s father was an officer in the government). They used to spend their free time on top of the water tank which they climbed using the ladder. Thomas would share stories about the latest Hindi films. Balan would listen intently about Raj Kapoor and Vijayanthimala and their latest hit movie, ‘Sangam.’ Balan’s parents were very orthodox and they did not even buy a radio even though they could afford it for fear of the children getting wrong influences. The only movie that Balan had seen was, ‘Ten Commandments’ which they had seen as a family. Thomas was a good boy He was good at making up stories and would say that beyond the hills the trees hid a tower, which had been the abode of a princess who had been imprisoned by her father for falling in love with a commoner. The king had beheaded the commoner and the daughter was banished by the king for life. She had died in the tower and her ghost had been haunting the tower ever since. He also added some color to his story by saying that the hill fires that occurred during the summer were actually set by her out of vengeance for what her father had done to her and her lover.

There was another story going around that the tower was actually a part of a fort that existed from the sixteenth century and that some soldiers had been trapped over there by the enemy and finally they had died of starvation and thirst. It was also rumored that the ghosts of the soldiers visited the hilltop to remember their pain and cry over how fate had treated them. In fact, Thomas insisted that the wailing sound they heard during the calm of the night was actually their wailing and not the sound of the wind. Balan would listen to the stories eagerly swallowing every word that Thomas uttered, fearing that if he lost one word he may miss the flavor of the juicy and fantastic stories.

It was during the summer holidays when there was all the time in the world and it seemed that the days would not pass by that Thomas, who had been alone at home for a few days, suggested the unthinkable. Dr. C having gone to the city and would not be back during the weekend, so Thomas was free. He felt a felt a tingling of curiosity about the hill top and jokingly said to Balan, This is the right time for us to go there, you see during the day there will be no ghosts and we will be safe. Balan was not too sure about this and said, I do not know, let me think about this. Thomas said, This is an adventure, no one needs to know about this, we will come back soon. We can go to the top of the hill just get a peek at what lies hidden behind the trees and run back. To Balan it seemed exciting but frightening. He was curious but not courageous, yet how could he show his friend that he the son of an officer lacked courage?

He said, Thomas, the hilltop is very far and if we go now what will happen if you’re Dr. C arrives suddenly?

Thomas, was not taken in by the argument, I told you, he is not going to be home till Sunday evening, you do not worry about me, are you coming?

Balan tried another argument, Thomas, you know that the DSC people would shout at us if they find out, and then your Dr. C will really come to know about this. The DSC was the Defense Security Core nonmilitary personnel who kept guard over the place as the area was highly sensitive. They oversaw the security of the area, and they had never ever made any issue about the children playing on the hill. Yet, Balan was somehow trying to wriggle out of the challenge that Thomas had thrown out to him. He even had a small doubt that the real reason that Thomas had suggested this was to test his response to the adventure and actually Thomas