There were a peasant called Ram Kisan in a village.
He was very hard working and Kabita was his beautiful wife. They had three lovely children and took care of the children very much.
The children loved and obeyed to their mother so much that the family had become an ideal family for the rest of the people in the entire village.
One night, a steady heavy rain poured throughout the village. Because of the heavy rain, most of the insects had rushed to the nearby villages.
A scorpion was hiding and taking shelter in the house of Ram Kisan. And, suddenly, it bit Kabita on her foot and she fell
down unconscious.
Ram Kisan and his neighbours rushed towards her and later, they realised she was bitten by a poisonous scorpion. Instantly, they
searched for the insect but it was not found.
As the poison of the insect spreads all over the body, she was feeling more and more pain. It was becoming more and more unbearable
she twisted through and through groaning on a mat.
The villagers thought only a holy man can cure her.
So, they called for the holy man and he performed his rites to tame the poison with an incantation. But,Kabita was not changed nor recovered even a little.
Ram Kisan who was a sceptic and rationalist, could not stand and watch her any longer groaning.
So, he tried every curse and blessing, powder, mixture, herbs and hybrid.
Still nothing happened to her. She was groaning and twisting on the mat.
Ram Kisan, at last, poured a little paraffin upon the bitten toe and put a match on it.
The people sitting around on the floor with poor Kabita in the center, watched the flame feeding on her. The whole night,
she was unconscious and lying just like a dead body.
Luckily, after a long twenty four hours, it lost its sting and Kabita could opened her eyes.
Ram Kisan and his neighbours were joyful excited with sudden feelings of happiness.
To the surprise of all the people, Kabita uttered, "Thank god, the scorpion picked on me and spared my children".
* Oinam Samananda Meitei, a resident of New Delhi, wrote this short story and contributed to e-pao.net .
You can read more at his blog here .
You can contacted him at samananda(dot)sam2010(at)gmail(dot)com .
This article was webcasted on January 25th, 2008
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