Stare For Stare

At Yerovda Jail near Poona, in a cell not far from the one which houses the sainted person of Mahatma Gandhi, one day last week sat another Nationalist leader named L. B. Bhopatkar. Suddenly he heard a warning shout, saw before him a large, ugly cobra. The warden who had shouted ran off for a club while Prisoner Bhopatkar was left alone with his cobra. Regarded as sacred by most Indians, the cobra must be avoided, not slain. But Prisoner Bhopatkar, locked in his cell, could not avoid this one. Unarmed, neither could he kill it. As the cobra fixed him with its jeweled eyes, he sat crosslegged, giving back stare for stare. For ten minutes neither moved a muscle. Then the warden returned, clubbed the cobra to death. "That was wrong," said St. Gandhi severely. "The cobra's visit was a good omen."

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