It was the middle of February 1994 when a young woman in her mid 20s was getting ready for her wedding. Like any bride she was excited and nervous at the same time.
"How do I look?" asked the young bride to the maid of honor helping her get ready as she turned around to which she responds "Beautiful and elegant as usual"
"Thanks, all that's left now are these bangles right?" asked the bride
"Yes, here let me help you" the maid of confirmed followed by her sliding the bright red set of bangles down the bride's wrists, "and we're all set to go"
"Is it time already?" asked the bride
"Yes, Neelima it is, I guess we sure took our own sweet time getting you ready" replied the maid of honor, "Anvay has been waiting down at the mandap since he arrived"
"Oh is it so? then let's head down right away" replied Neelima
As they reached the mandap and Neelima was seated next to Anvay, the priest commenced with the wedding rituals which lasted for almost 3 hours. Once everything was done the two of them were sent off in a decorated white car. During the ride Neelima was experiencing a flood of emotions. While she was happy to finally unite with the love of her life it came at the cost of leaving behind her loved ones who vehemently opposed her union with Anvay as he belonged to a world very much different from her own. As Anvay noticed her distress and began to console her.
"I know, going against your family was not easy, however I'll ensure that you don't regret your decision, we'll win them over eventually" Anvay assured her as he held on to her hand
"It's not going to be easy, perhaps its impossible now" sighed Neelima
"Why do you say that? asked Anvay
"You wouldn't understand, and honestly I don't think I can explain it to you either, just know that some things are best left unexplained" replied Neelima
The ride lasted for another 15 minutes in silence before they reached home where Anvay's family was waiting to welcome the newly wed couple.
As they were both welcomed as per the rituals Neelima for some reason felt uneasy, but dismissed it as her anxiety and headed towards the bridal chamber.
Anxious as she were, she took her place on the bed and waited for Anvay. As she waited, something for some reason felt amiss, until she noticed the moon up in the sky, it was a full moon which got her alarmed. She soon headed towards the window and pulled the curtains to cover it.
At that very moment, Anvay entered the chamber startling her for a moment.
"Is everything okay? you look pretty startled" asked a concerned Anvay
"Yeah don't worry, I thought I saw a frog, guess it was my imagination" answered a reluctant Neelima
Neelima then picked up the glass of warm milk and handed it over to Anvay before they could consummate the marriage. As Anvay took a sip, and placed it back on the bedside table, he walked towards Neelima and held on to her hand.
"I cant believe that we're finally together" Anvay expressed his joy as he embraced Neelima
"But we are! There may have been a lot of hurdles but we've managed to overcome them all" replied Neelima with tears of joy
As they were about to proceed, the loud sound of a been disrupted their night. As the music got louder Neelima began to feel uneasy and turned away from Anvay instantly.
It turns out that there were snake charmers outside their house who were summoned as the head of the house claimed to have seen a snake slithered it's way inside. Hence they entered the house and continued playing the been disrupting everything.
As the sound of the been got even more louder, to Neelima's dismay her skin began scaling and her eyes turned bright yellow like that of a reptile's. Anvay begged her to turn a round so he could examine what's wrong but she resisted.
"Please look away!" pleaded Neelima
"But what's wrong, why aren't you letting me help?" asked a worried Anvay
"You wouldn't understand, and this isn't something you can change" responded Neelima
"What would I not understand?" asked Anvay
"If you wish to help me then make them stop!" Neelima told him as her head throbbed
But as the been got even louder Anvay was unable to hear her out and approached Neelima regardless of her resistance only to be stunned and repulsed by the sight of her causing him to let out a loud scream and push her away.
In a state of shock he ran out of the room, drawing the attention of his family members who raced towards him to enquire about his sudden outburst.
In a state of shock he points towards his room and blurts out "She's not human!"
"What do you mean?" Asked Anvay's father
"See for yourself what I mean!" Anvay directed his father to go and inspect the new bride to confirm what he saw.
Anvay entered the room to find himself facing Neelima's back
"Turn around girl, it's an order", to which Neelima reluctantly followed, confirming what Anvay told them. "So it's true, you are indeed not a human..."
Anvay's brother and mother then enter the room to confirm the same, "She's a Naagin, she's dangerous, our Son will be dead if we let her be" concluded Anvay's mother.
"You're right mother, she is dangerous, we better get rid of her right away or she'll never let go of him" agreed Anvay's brother.
Anvay's father agreed as well and directed the group of snake charmers to the bridal chamber, Neelima tried to leave but was immobilized by the sound of the been. The snake charmers then entered the room and wrapped her with bilva leaves, dragging her out into the hall and started to beat her with long bamboo sticks and iron rods. Though she was defenseless and cornered, she desperately gathered every ounce of her strength to transform into a serpent and slither away from them.
With whatever strength she possessed she managed to reach the temple that was situated nearby the realm of the serpents. Out of exhaustion she reverted back to her human avatar, her head was bleeding profusely, her body throbbed but what hurt her the most was the fact that the person who she loved enough to leave everything behind turned their back on her when she needed them the most. As the heartbroken Naagin laid down, she began to wonder if marrying Anvay was indeed a mistake and everyone who opposed the marriage were right, given the circumstances she wanted to hope that Anvay did indeed love her, and that time if allowed to do so would heal every wound and that he would accept her regardless of her true identity.
Neelima used whatever strength she had left in her to get up and enter the temple, as she stood before the idol of lord Shiva,
"O lord, why have you forsaken me? What did I do so wrong? I gave up everything, including my only family, how could you allow this to happen to me? Is it my fault that I'm not human then why am I being punished again?" Neelima cried out hoping to receive an answer.
"It isn't your fault that you are a naagin, but you are definitely at fault for trusting a human over your own kind." answered a voice
Neelima turned around to find a familiar face. It was her close friend Seema another Naagin who was distraught at the sight of Neelima, she walked towards her and embraced her, a stream of sorrowful tears ran down her cheeks.
"Just look at you, is this why you gave up everything, so you could turn up here half dead? Didn't we warn you about those humans, that they aren't trustworthy" asked Seema
"That isn't true, what they did was merely a reaction to what they perceived as a threat, it was my fault for keeping this a secret from Anvay, had I told him the truth much earlier then all of this could have been avoided" answered Neelima
"Really? then why didn't you?" rebuked Seema
"I was waiting for the right opportunity, moreover once I married him I knew that I'd transition into becoming a human eventually so I didn't think of it as necessary" Neelima clarified
"You weren't waiting for the right opportunity, what held you back was your fear about us being right about him not falling for you but your human avatar!" Seema shot back "if he really loved you he wouldn't have let you get hurt like this regardless of who you are, and you know I'm right about this, his family may have been cruel to you but he is even worse, prove me wrong if you think I am" Seema continued
"All I know is that I'm to be blamed for this as well, but what I don't understand is how did those snake charmers get there out of the blue" Neelima replied
"Snake charmers?....." Seema paused for a while, "I think we should hurry back to Naaglok, if what you said is true then it's highly likely that this was a trap, let's not waste any time, hurry"
"A trap? but who could do this?" asked Neelima
"We'll think about that once we get there, let's leave for now, I'll help you out" Seema responded.
As they were on their way to Naaglok, little did they know that they were already being tailed and before they could enter the gateway they were ambushed by none other than Anvay's father, older brother, maternal and paternal uncles along with a group of snake charmers and a tantrik.
"What are you doing here and why did you follow us?" asked Neelima
"Why do you think we'd follow you Naagrani?" asked the tantrik "It's obviously because of the naagmani! It took me a whole decade to track this place along with you, and now you're finally within my grasp"
"You'll never attain the naagmani, i'll ensure that myself!" warned Neelima and then turned towards her in laws "and you all, does Anvay know about your collusion with this evil man?" asked Neelima
"Know about it? He was pretty much a part of this plan, he may have not known about you being a Naagin earlier but it's all fine now, we just needed him to bring you down." answered Anvay's brother
"You're lying!" Neelima countered
"Lying? why will we lie about this now that we have you right where we wanted? The only reason you'll managed to get together was because of the events we orchestrated to bring you'll together, you really thought we'd accept you as family? why else do you think we got you married at a deserted place where hardly anyone knows us?" Anvay's older brother explained
"Exactly as Shashi said, Anvay was more or less a pawn but he's still my son, I'd never let him spend the rest of his life with you, which is why we got you exposed today right away so he could get over it, and if it had to come between choosing us and you, he'd never choose you" added Anvay's father.
Seema was fuming at the insolence displayed by the humans towards her queen, "And you think you'd still attain the naagmani like this? Never and over our dead body, while you were wasting time explaining your lies and conspiracy I had signalled to send reinforcements to fend you off, they'll be here any minute" Seema warned them
To which they all began to laugh as if it were no big deal, "Naagin, even if you call a 100 more serpents they'd be useless on a night like this, moreover you're queen has abdicated the throne now hasn't she, plus she is married to a human and severely injured and weak at the moment, do you really think you'd win against us inspite of that?" asked the tantrik
To which Neelima replies, " It doesn't matter, no matter how strong you are or how weak we are, we'll do whatever it takes to fend you off and protect that sacred gem!"
"So be it, Attack them all" the tantrik ordered his subordinates and snake charmers.
The snake charmers kept playing the been while the serpents tried to ward them off but were unable to do so as they were protected by an amulet given by the tantrik, rendering their every attack useless, while on the other hand the serpents were easily subdued and getting eliminated. However Neelima on the other hand inspite of being injured was putting up a good fight and was nearly able to turn the tables. Fearing that they might end up losing the naagmani and get killed by Neelima, Shashi calls a distressed Anvay explaining just half the situation and urged him to bring their ancestral enchanted dagger from the family shrine.
As Anvay heads out to collect the dagger he is still unable to accept the reality of his situation, nor accept the fact that his wife isn't a human. While on his way to the shrine, he wonders if everything they felt till date were a lie given the fact that she deceived him till the end. He began to question if his feelings for her mattered anymore given that everything now seemed like a lie or if he could still love her the same as before.
As soon as he reached the Shrine, and collected the dagger he was filled with dread, he loved his family but at the same time Neelima was still his wife, the woman he loved, irrespective of what she really were, an internal conflict raged within him the entire time before he finally reached the spot his brother mentioned.
As he got there he was terrified at the sight of what he saw, Neelima had assumed her semi naagin avatar and was ruthlessly attacking and subduing his family members along with the tantrik. As he approached the scene, he cried out loud and asked her to stop and pull back.
"You want me to stop? Your family attacked me first, attacked my people first and you want me to stop and show them mercy?" asked an infuriated Neelima
"Yes, because you were the one who lied and deceived us first? Therefore you owe us that much" argued Anvay
To which Neelima retorted, "Even if I lied, does that give you'll the right to attack and kill me? When your entire family tried to lynch me a while ago what exactly did you do? where was your reasoning back then? would you have done the same had I been human?"
Seema who was covering for Neelima then yells out, "of course not, its like I said, he never loved you, it was your human avatar, so snap out of it and focus"
With that said Neelima returned her attention to finishing off her in laws and the tantrik.
Anvay's brother who was trying to defend himself from Neelima's flamethrower, asked him to throw the dagger towards them, which he did but Seema managed to deflect it with her tail and tossed it far away.
Unable to do much against Neelima, they were getting exhausted and had nearly accepted defeat giving Neelima and Seema an opportunity to deliver their final attack to in order to finish off their foes all at once, however before they could that Neelima gets mortally wounded by the enchanted dagger which was hurled towards her by Anvay. Watching this Seema gets caught offguard making it easier for the snake charmers and the tantrik to attack and subdue her.
Seeing this, Anvay's family let out a sigh of relief, overjoyed at the fact that no one was left to prevent them from attaining the naagmani and they all head towards Naaglok with the help of the tantrik, where they find the same and extract it right away while destroying everything and eliminating all those who obstructed them.
Outside the gateway, Anvay reaches out to Neelima who is at her final moments before death, he picks up her upper body gently and removes the dagger out of her back before placing her in his arms.
"I'm sorry Neelima, I assured you that you wouldn't have regretted your decision but I couldn't live up to my word, I was only trying to protect my family, I didn't want to hurt you like this" cried Anvay
Neelima's who was trying hard to stay conscious, could not believe the words she was hearing. She then responded while gasping for air with whatever little energy she had "Y-You were protecting your family, so was I protecting mine, but d-did I ever attack you from the back .....? I had given up everything so that we could be together ............ b-but you chose your family over me at the end and finally, when I was indifferent to the fact that you're human inspite of all the warnings I received from my family .......... why couldn't you accept me for who I am? ...... Did you really ever love me?...if so what changed now, arent I still the same person?"
Her words pierced through his heart, for she were right about everything and there was nothing exactly that he could do or say to justify his actions. " You're right, and I'm sorry, I know there's nothing I can do, but let me tell you, I never wanted it to end this way either, I was frightened and i wasn't in my senses" he sobs
"Were you in your senses when y-you ...... stabbed me in the back a while ago? ....... can you answer that" Neelima questioned him
"Yes.... I was..." Anvay confirmed.
"Do you ....... realize what ..... you've done" Neelima asks while gasping heavily " because of you my loved ones are going to suffer ..... my innocent family paid the price because of ..... your selfish actions..... do you think a sorry is going to fix that? ....... You couldn't keep any of your promises to me..... but let me make you one....."
She told him as she grabbed on tightly to his arm and fierce yet coldly stared into his eyes, " The way you brought misfortune upon those that I held dear.... I swear the same would follow you and your beloved family till the end.... you may try whatever you can to keep it at bay, but it will follow it's due course, I will return to make you pay eventually, come what may!", She cursed at him as she let out her final breath.
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