Three young boys, tired of chasing each other in the steaming monsoon heat, scramble over each other to gather around their Grandmother Vengalu who had just stepped through the nursery's ancient, crumbling doorway. Vengalu looked around at the broken pottery, seeing clear signs that mudpies were in the making and clucked her tongue. "Oh my god you silly boys, look at this mess" she scolded them, but her smile didn't stop and they knew she didn't really care. Grandmother Vengalu, unlike Yallaman, their other grandmother, never had a cross word for them that she actually meant, always brought sweets and talked to them like what they had to say was completely to be taken seriously. She was never dismissive of them. "Come boys, you are making my neck ache moving everywhere, sit down and I will tell you a story." The boys sprawled at her feet, though one had a small, hard fabric ball he tossed repeatedly at the wall. Vengalu looked around, pleased they were paying as much attention as they could and began. "Many years ago, when your ugly old grandmother Vengalu was a young beauty '(at this the boys giggled disbelievingly)' I was delayed for many years to be married. I was the oldest from my village to be a bride, and that reason was named Lord Willocks. " Seeing their confusion she briefly explained "a fine young Scottish man who mistakenly thought his wide view of the world and open heart would translate into a change of circumstance for someone he loved. " Seeing their confusion deepened, she brushed it off to "Oh that man that your father gets terribly angry about whenever he is brought up. But that is neither here nor there. The point is, he once told me an old story from wherever it was he came from, about a shiny water animal who would climb out of the sea, shed their skin and walk on land as a beautiful woman. And if you could capture their great, wet skin you can keep them, enslaved as it were, as your wife. " The boys wrinkled their nose at both the idea of marriage and having to share a bed with a wet, walking woman-sea creature. "Well, there is a similar story told here from long ago but the creature is a giant snake. " At this the boys perk up. Women, uninteresting, snakes, fascinating! "Once, there was a Brahmin man who had wanted a son for many years, and praying to Vishnu whom he beseeched "Please let my line continue, for I am the last of my family. I have taken 3 wives and no sons have come. What am I to do?" And Vishnu answered him by giving him a son that was part an embodiment of Seshnaga. Now boys, you know who Seshnaga is right?" The boys nod their heads, Seshnaga is a very important 5 headed snake god who as tradition holds was born of the remains from when the universe and it's inhabitants were created. He shields Vishnu with his hooded head and is in turn worshipped as a manifestation of Vishnu. "So the son was a snake!" "Yes and no. " clarified Vengalu. "The son was a snake, but he could take the form of a normal boy when provoked to. Well many years passed and the now old Brahmin man again needed to pray to Vishnu. 'My lord, I have the son as I prayed, and for that I am thankful. But my line still will stop at me, for who could marry a snake? With no wife he can have no sons to be proud of' And again, Lord Vishnu blessed his family. For at the next festival at the temple of the Mother of the Snakes, a young priestess met his son while caretaking for the temple's resident snakes. He was the largest, and had a shining green hood, and when she picked him up to milk him, she kissed him lightly on the head. This provoked him to be able to climb out of his skin and meet her as a man. Entranced by his physical beauty and kind but intelligent eyes, she took him home to her family so they could meet their future son in law. Not knowing his snake origins, they agreed readily for his family was Brahmin, always a revered status, while her's were temple workers. Within a single moon cycle they were wedded but on the wedding night, he went into his skin to recuperate after the ceremony and could not come back out. Frantic her marriage was over before it began, the young unbedded wife ran to her father in law and explained what happened. That night he ran to the local Vishnu temple and demanded to be let in. He purchased many expensive linga at the gate and oil and lit them at the shrine inside. 'Lord Vishnu!' he cried. 'Please I beg of you! You have given me all that I asked for, a son, and then a wife for my son. Now I beg of you not to withold your blessings now, please allow him to come out of his skin and beget more of my line on his new wife!' "Again Lord Vishnu was merciful and blessed the family. For the next morning, the son was able to climb out of his skin and walked to his lonely, terrified wife. 'It is me my dear, do not worry. Burn my skin and I will never be kept from your arms again.' So she did burn the skin and he couldn't become the snake anymore. 2 Moons later, his young wife became pregnant. Both sides of the family rejoiced, for this meant the marriage was secure, and that the family line was secure. The heavier she became with child, the happier the father in law was. But all did not stay happy. When the child came, it was a girl. Not a son as the Brahmin had hoped. Again he fled to the shrine at the temple. "Please my Lord, it must be a son! I did not ask for this." But this time Lord Brahmin was not merciful. The temple guardians explained to him, 'You asked for a child and a child you have. You can be certain now that your line will continue, for it is harder to guarantee a man is a child's father than it is to prove a woman is a child's mother. Trust me, this is the only way you could get your prayer in full, as you wish. Accept it and rejoice.' But he could not rejoice and tried to break up his son's marriage, so that he could remarry a woman who had already had a son, therefore possessing a proven track record of ability." At this the boys' eyes grew large for they knew this meant something bad was about to happen. Even one so young knows better than to send a gift back from the gods. "The son did not want to remarry and leave his young wife or their daughter. But his father was powerful, and forced them to do as his will. At the son's new wedding, to avoid the curse of an angry god, the father had 14 elephants brought in to lead the wedding party for good luck. All went well until the son went to climb atop the elephant's towering back. Elephants have a natural fear of snakes and cannot tolerate to be in their presence, even if a snake has alot more to fear from an elephant. Their slithering so far down below their clear sight makes them a terrible fright I'm sure you understand. The elephant took one look at the son who used to be a snake, took afright and in his frenzy to escape stomped on his head and killed him. The father was heart broken, and realizing his error gave all his family wealth to his daughter in law and granddaughter and went into the woods and lived as an aesthetic for the rest of his days." "Now you boys know, never ask for that which you do not truly, exactly want. And never return a gift from a god." Adapted from The Enchanted Brahmin's son