Osmania Biscuit XII Part II: Sarpasatram

Nagaraj was a cousin and a close friend of Lingam's. He comes to Hyd quite often to meet Lingam. He was recently married with a girl named Vaasuki (you would think its a coincidence that their names match, but you just wait!) from MBNR. At that time, Nagraj was worried abt his wife. She was a govt. teacher, and she used to work in a Lambada Tanda called Rukkannapalli, near Solipuram, in what used to be called then as S.T.P.S. (Single Teacher Primary School), with only 1 student. Added to that were her descriptions of the clandestine meetings of the Lambadi folk in the dead of the night at the place she used to stay, with talk of mesmerism and practice of 'dark arts'. Life was tough (and scary!).

Finally Nagaraj decided that his wife had enough and badly needed a transfer to MBNR proper, though she deemed herself tough. And so began Nagaraj's trials-- from Z.P.P. (Zilla Praja Parishad) office to Distt. Collector's office to Secretariat in Hyderabad and so on. He was exhausted in 'both of the three'-- mind, body and soul... There was only 1 way left-- To approach Erra Satyam. He thought the Yadav-Yadav connection would help him, but Erra Satyam's men told him that he already had "nominated" a fellow he is rumoured to like a lot there... someone called Kondanna (but his friends affectionately called him "Anna-Konda") to the only vacant post in MBNR proper. A dissappointed Nagaraj came home and told his wife about Anna-Konda. She was not moved. She was optimistic that any one with a heart would listen to a tale of danger and woe and give way to reason. Besides, Anna-Konda was already posted in MBNR. And so they went to Anna-Konda's place, and Vaasuki's plans were almost hatched when in came Anna-Konda's wife Rudramaamba (But since she was very dark, people used to call her "Black-Mamba"). Now Vaasuki and Black-Mamba were neightbours at one time and had a really really ugly altercation over who stole whose water when the municipal water tanker came to their colony. Vaasuki had won at that time (unfairly some thought!), and the time had come for pay-back. So began the pandemonium that has been widely publicised as "Sarpasatram" (if you get it!).

The end, though, was certain. Black-Mamba was in no mood to give in. An enraged Vaasuki threatened Anna-konda couple with impending curses and disaster, and in return, the Black-Mamba retorted that nothing can happen when Erra Satyam is on their side. Logically, this was the end of the confrontation, and the Nagaraj-couple left the place, rather worried where this might lead to.