Summary of the lesson 'The Snake and the Mirror'

 

The Snake and the Mirror (Vaikom Muhammad Basheer)  The protagonist in the story ‘The Snake and the Mirror’, the homeopath, and his friends were discussing snakes. He asked them, “has a snake ever coiled itself round any part of your body?” All of them fell silent and the doctor continued with the tale.  He had just set up his medical practice and his income was meagre.  He was staying alone in a rented house, which had a tiled roof and was not electrified. There were lots of rats staying with him in his room. It was a hot summer night about ten o’clock. He prepared his bed and tried to go to sleep, but he could not.  So, he got up and sat on a chair and tried to read the book ‘The Materia Medica’.  There was a large mirror on his table. He sat there looking into the mirror and took some decisions to increase his beauty. He thought of himself to be handsome, and was proud of being a young and unmarried doctor. He decided to shave daily and grow a thin moustache and also to keep an attractive smile on his face so that he would be more handsome. He heard many strange sounds from the roof, but he did not take them serious as he was familiar with such sounds created by rats. He was now thinking about his marriage. He wanted to marry a rich woman doctor with good medical practice. He also wanted his wife to be a fat woman. His idea was that if he made some silly mistakes, she should not be able to run after him and catch him. In the midst of all these lovely thoughts, suddenly he heard a dull thud sound.  Soon a fat cobra wriggled over the back of the chair and landed on his shoulder. It coiled on his left arm and stayed there spreading its hood just three or four inches away from his face. The doctor sat there like a stone image holding his breath. He had no medicines in his room in case of an emergency.  He was so frightened and pathetically thought of God’s help. Suddenly the snake saw its reflection in the mirror and it left the doctor and moved towards the mirror. The doctor jumped out of the room and ran till he reached his friend’s house.  Next day he and his friends came back to his room to move his things from there. But they saw that some thief had removed all his belongings and the room had been cleaned out. The thief had left behind the doctor’s dirty vest as a final insult!