The snake girl

Rebirth stories are almost endemic to Buddhist literature and Buddhist folk. The Pansiya Panas Jathaka stories, re-birth stories of the Buddha are the most well-known but in this heretical world some have a thing or two to remark on the tales. They were never related by the Buddha himself, the sceptics say, adding that the Enlightened one was so mindful of elucidating the profound Dhamma and He had no time to be relating stories. Then who made up these tales? Literary men is the answer. So, rebirth literature according to them entails much made-up matter.

Acclimatised to the above trend, the Sinhala Buddhists themselves are adept at “manufacturing” re-birth stories. In fact, the writer has an acquaintance who locates almost all the historical characters of the Sitawaka period including Tikiri Kumaru Rasinh, the mighty warrior king, among the populace of Havelock Town where they were reborn. She wishes to put out a book on her findings and wants me to write the preface. I declined stating that I have to make some negative comments as that it is ludicrous to expose that all these characters who lived and loved in the end of the 16th century in course of time via several births all decided to settle in and around Havelock Town, the author’s address. It was too much of a coincidence.

Actually, rebirth stories can be very strange. The snake girl story I am going to relate is one such. Have I seen her? No. Not in flesh and blood but on the magic box. Very attractive. Body as svelte as the snake entwining her. Today, she is one of the highest paid dancers in a Colombo club. No wonder for the snake slithers all over her as she dances. The two are like lovers. They even kiss each other. The snake could be defanged. Otherwise how does this miracle take place?

Limelight

Anyway it was not her twisting and turning on the stage with her reptile that pushed her on to the limelight provided by the mini screen in front of which not only the city crowd gape but even the village crowd just ‘Ahs’ and ‘Oohs'. According to crime stories presented on this wizard box many a village crime is committed as the household members sit mesmerised before the box, after having blown off the Hulu athus (the coconut leaf flames) they had carried to light the forested paths.

The villagers see the snake girl on the box and a few living hundreds of miles away from the city of the Kolon tree miraculously recognise the cabaret dancer. One elder becomes the most vociferous at her sight.

“It is she. It is Tikiri, my granddaughter, the girl I fed food on my lap”. He hollers wiping the sweat with his towel for he is much excited. How much he had searched for her! High and low, among the hills and dales, in the canyons and gorges of the highland terrain. Then he had given her up for the dead. Poor girl abandoned by her parents as an infant.

“Listen. Bande. She cannot be Tikiri. She says her mother is an Indian film actress. Maybe she herself hails from India and is a likeness of our Tikiri”.

Gestures

“No. No. It is she. Her gestures, her movements, her voice”.
But the reader may be flummoxed by now, so I have to fill in the gaps.

How did the snake girl get hoisted on to the TV? They do not present the whole brood of night club dancers in Colombo. No. She had been taken to courts for dancing with a snake. More bizarre things happen in these clubs. Those who went to courts against her had been a throng of females who shared her apartment. They perhaps grew jealous of her rising fame and fortune and filed a case of cruelty to animals. Ask the snake whether she was cruel to the creepy thing? The answer could be “I No. I just enjoyed dancing with her. Sweet girl she was”. But the judge was convinced on the cruelty and sent the snake to, maybe the zoo.

Did the Snake girl keep quiet? No. She had the guts and now she appealed to the judge saying that her means of livelihood had been taken away from her.

The judge relented and restored the snake back to her. Did all end well? No, there is more or I cook up more for my mission of “Musings”. After all, I have not been given this valuable space to relate stories.

The girl, according to Bande had attended the village school on the mountain. She was not a very bright student but she was outstanding as far as her looks and talents are concerned. Many a boy longed for her as she blossomed into a lovely lass but she would not give in. Across the Balana mountain range where once a king kidnapped a princess, she would visualise the new capital by the sea and its doings. Only if she could get there....!

Samsaric voyage

The voyage was long and tedious, as much as a Samsaric voyage where one dies and gets reborn. She had to flee from her village where many went hungry. I am not sure of the details. But she finally ended up the famous snake girl. Her dancing drew many to the club and her fame and fortunes increased. The village spectators huddled before the box and make many a remark. Some say that she would have prayed to the gods in the village temple under the glistening Bo leaves and asked for a better life as women clad in white walked about in the temple compound carrying Pan Kendiyas, praying for a better life.

“A better life after her death, that is?” questions sharp witted Soide Menike.
“What else? You have first to die and then get reborn”

Little Bande, a cousin of the Snake Girl calculates the time it takes. “Very long time it needs especially if after akka dies in her old age” he observes.

Soide Menike, again puts in her remarks, The girl by her own energy got reborn this life itself.

Rebirth

Yes. She knew she had talents and flowered them in a suitable environment in this life itself. As little Bande remarked, how long it will take to get reborn? Of course she had to fabricate some lies to create a romantic environment. So the Indian film actress story about her mom who actually saps rubber milk on Hatara Korale estates. What about the grandfather who fed her for years and sent her to school? Of course she had been ungrateful there. But in this stupendous task of getting reborn in this life itself certain lapses have to be tolerated.

The fact remains, though some may say that this is heresy, that the girl got reborn in this life itself. I did this piece on January 22 but on January 24 night I was a sad spectator to the Snake Girl on the streets of Colombo, battered and bleeding from her “Arab lover’s attacks.”. Will her village folk take her back and heal life’s cruel blows? That could be the best salve.