| Have you ever experienced something that can't be explained by rational science?" asked Mithilesh, an old friend from Gopiganj. "Of course not!" said I. "I didn't either, until my strange experience a fortnight ago," said he. Here's the story he told me. |
| It was a torpid summer morning in Gopiganj, and a group of daily wage labourers were working in the fields behind the carpet factory where Mithilesh worked. Suddenly, one of the younger men, about twenty-two years old, yelled: "Help! I've been bitten!" The labourer closest to him saw a long black snake slither away. "Catch the snake!" he cried. It always helped to catch the snake and identify whether it was poisonous or not. The snake escaped, and they realised that it had indeed been poisonous. The victim had lost consciousness already, and could not be revived. |
| Mithilesh rushed the victim to the nearest doctor, who examined him and pronounced that he was sinking fast and would certainly die if he did not receive anti-venom medicines. But the civil hospital, the only place authorised to keep anti-venom, had none. There seemed no way that they could get the victim to the hospital in the next district, assuming, of course, that that hospital stocked anti-venom serum. In the mean time, the doctor administered whatever medicines he had in stock, but the victim was unresponsive. When he stopped responding to stimuli applied on the soles of his feet, the crowd began giving the usual suggestions. |
| "I know a very good jhar-phook doctor," volunteered one, "but he lives in a village five kilometres away." Another suggested bathing the victim in ice cold water. By this time, the victim's old mother was brought in, and her loud laments added to the confusion. Then one man said, "there's a shopkeeper here who keeps some special German medicine. People say it's miraculous!" Mithilesh looked at life ebb out of the young man before him, decided that trying out some mystery medicine was better than helplessly watching him die. |
| They piled into two jeeps, the victim in the first one, and Mitihlesh in the one behind. "My jeep must have reached five minutes after the first one," said Mithilesh, "and a crowd rushed towards us as we stopped outside the shopkeeper's house." His first thought was, obviously, that the poor young fellow had died en route. "Nothing had prepared me for the sight that greeted me," said Mithilesh. The crowd parted to reveal the victim sitting on his stretcher, grinning broadly from ear to ear. |
| "What happened?" Mithilesh cried, "how did you come back to life in a matter of minutes?" The group stumbled over each other to tell him the miracle. As soon as they showed the shopkeeper the victim, he put a few drops of the mystery medicine into his nostrils. "Watch out," he cautioned, "many people jump up and start running after this medicine is given to them." And that's what happened. "The boy awoke, jumped up, and had to be restrained from running off," said Mithilesh. |
| The shopkeeper said that it was time for the Friday prayer, so would they excuse him? He directed that the victim be bathed with lots of water, refused payment for what he deemed a social service, and was off. The crowd dispersed as well, except for some who stayed behind to bathe the young man. There was nobody left to answer Mithilesh's questions. So he went off as well. But even now, he wonders about that mystery medicine that apparently brought that young man back from the inexorable jaws of death. |
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
