Lucknow: For nearly half an hour, a small mud house in Tisgana village of Lalitpur echoed with cries of fear. Inside, 32-year-old Govind, a daily wage labourer, clutched a four-foot-long snake with his bare hands, weeping uncontrollably, convinced that the reptile had sunk its fangs into him.
It began as an ordinary Sunday evening. Govind was folding bedding when suddenly, from inside the sheets, the snake fell on him. Shocked and trembling, he instinctively grabbed it by its hood with his left hand. But instead of throwing it away, his terror only deepened.
“It has bitten me… save me!” he screamed, collapsing to the floor. His mother and brothers rushed in, only to find him sobbing, the snake tightly wound in his fist.
“I was so scared, I could not even go near my son,” his mother recalled, tears in her eyes. “He kept saying again and again that the snake had bitten him. I begged him to throw it away, but he would not. He was terrified.”
Neighbours gathered outside, stunned by the sight. Some shouted that he should let go, others prayed. But Govind refused to open his fist. For nearly 30 minutes, he wrestled with the snake as it struggled. In the end, the reptile went limp, its life squeezed out by his iron grip.
Only then did the family manage to take it out from his hand and rush him to the community health centre. On the way, Govind kept repeating, “Doctor sahib, save me, I have been bitten!”
At the hospital, doctors examined him thoroughly. To his family’s relief, there were no bite marks. “There was no evidence of a snakebite,” said Dr Veerpal Singh of Madawara CHC. “We explained this to him, but he was so traumatised he did not believe us. He kept pleading to be saved.” On the family’s insistence, he was referred to the district hospital.
Even though doctors declared him safe, Govind’s fear has not gone away. Back home, his brother keeps reminding him that the snake never bit him, and his mother sits by his side, consoling him. But Govind still whispers in fear, “It has poisoned me… save me.”
For villagers in Tisgana, the bizarre episode has become the talk of the day. Some call him brave for killing the snake with his bare hands; others say it was sheer panic. But for Govind and his family, the night left behind more than just shock—it has left a man haunted by the memory of a snake that never bit him.
