A Flatter To Deceive

That was few years before my superannuation when my close friend, an executive director(ED) of an integrated steel plant called me for a dinner at his bungalow. It was a typical summer at the steel city of Orissa, where the mercury touches 48 degree Celsius at times. There was no rain for more than eight weeks which made the weather intolerable in the afternoon and evening hours. The time was fixed at 8pm.
When I reached the bungalow the security guard after a routine checkup allowed my car in side.
After few minutes another close friend of mine a general manager (GM) greeted me and we waited for the ED to arrive. After a quick bath our host entered the hall and set beside me. The sweet smell of Brute and the white kurta was befitting to the occasion.
“Should we go out and enjoy our drink in the lawn?”
We agreed. The waiter took those kabab and salad plates and we occupied our seats in those nice old time cousey cane chairs. After a short while, it drizzled which made us to go back to the verandah. Our ED friend was sipping whisky and me the black label lager beer and our GM who would have loved to take whisky but for his heart problem and doctors advice was sipping a soft drink. Due to the drizzle the humidity was unbearable so we decided it would be better if we move in to an AC room .But to our bad luck the power went off and our ED went to his bed room to bring the emergency light.

We had discussion on varied topics and were feeling hungry when the cook asked about the timing of our dinner. Our ED friend was staying alone as his wife had gone to England to help her daughter, as she was pregnant.
The power supply was playing hide and seek for the whole of evening which was unusual in a VIP house. Our friend went to his bed room once again as he has left his cord less phone when the electricity was gone. He had not taken the light with him. When I switched the emergency light to wards the bed room I could see a black object trying to enter the bed room of our VIP friend. I shouted with top of my voice and asked him not to come out. On the white marble this speckled band krait was finding it difficult to crawl. When I asked the security guard to bring a stick, he brought a ten feet long bamboo which was not the gadget to kill a snake. As I have spent many of my younger days in the remote villages of Mayurbhanj , I was familiar with snakes. Any how the proper size stick arrived and I could kill the dangerous snake in spite of two bottles of beer. GM friend jokingly told “ it’s the beer which helped me to kill the deadly snake as the fear was gone due to alcoholic effect.”
My friend thanked me profusely and told me, but for me any thing could have happened at night. I asked him a favor, “my promotion is over due please help me if you can”.
I was assured that there will be good coverage in news papers and my promotion is one the cards.
After the dinner I went home happily waiting for the next morning. Days and months passed bye there was no news coverage about this incident. Later on I came to know that if this being the state of affair in ED bungalow how the union people would have reacted to it? So this news was hushed up.

The next year our friend informed me about the good news of his promotion to the post of managing director. I was waiting breathlessly for the next good news which never came and our good friend now serves the people of a foreign land without the fear of a snake.

Sanjoy Kumar Satpathy
House no 4, plot:401/2362,Atpost:Patia,BHUBANESWAR-31,Orissa, India