TWO STRANGE TALES

"I was looking at this tree when all of a sudden, for about 18 seconds, leaves started falling from it.  After a few minutes, the same thing happened again and leaves began falling to the ground - what do you think of that ?"  "Are you sure there wasn't a monkey in the tree or a crow ?"  I asked skeptically.  The business man and owner of the Thali Restaurant, where I had just eaten lunch, looked at me and shook his head.  "No it was Autumn and because there is no wind to shake the leaves down, the tree has devised a way of doing it"  It was 45 C outside,  the fan whirled behind me, could this serious man seriously believe that a tree could shed its leaves at will, as if it had a mind ?

"There was a small shrine in our garden, where I grew up, dedicated to the snake god and  a viper, lived near that shrine - it had white whiskers or white markings which looked like whiskers.  Every evening it would come into the centre of our yard and lie there for all to see.  My great grandfather first noticed it and the story was handed down the family generation by generation, I saw it myself as a boy...the same snake....which means it was 150 years old !  We believed it protected our family...  And it did.  One day my brother's son, who ran a motorbike business in a private complex, had his business closed after a dispute with the residents of the complex.  They locked the doors of the shop and put padlocks on all entrances.  My nephew was very upset and went to the shrine to pray to the snake god.  That night the watchman reported seeing a snake which was unafraid of his stick, it approached him and then after a few moments, slithered off to the  premises where the shop was and wound itself around each padlock and then left, as silently as it had come.  First thing the next morning the locks were taken off the doors, the residents said the dispute was over, he would be allowed to continue to run his business.  His prayer was answered."  In the heat of the day, I was mesmerized, feeling transfixed by his unblinking gaze - had I imagined these stories ?