Wildbuzz | Cobra ended Zahreela’s stunts

35-year-old Rajinder of Karnal had Zahreela attached to his name by awed villagers as he was a show-off who would shove a snake’s head into his mouth to terrify villagers and establish a mohalla reputation of a filmy “daredevil”

In Sandeer village of Karnal district, a 35-year-old unmarried man, Rajinder, had “Zahreela” attached to his name by awed villagers. He was a show-off who would shove a snake’s head into his mouth to terrify villagers and establish a mohalla reputation of a filmy “daredevil”. Or capture snakes with a “chimta” used by rural women to pull “rotis” from the fire. It all worked, because the ruralites did not realise Rajinder was pulling off these stunts with non-venomous species.

Late Rajinder with a non-venomous checkered keelback in his mouth.

Rajinder nurtured another quirky trait. He would haunt the village cremation ground, take home the white sheets left by relatives of the dead and even break the “matkas” used in the last rituals. In order to display his contempt for death, Rajinder would taunt villagers with the airy boast that he would be the first to be brought to the pyre following the renovations currently underway at the cremation grounds.

On April 5, 2026, a spectacled cobra was spotted at the cremation grounds. Sandeer’s sarpanch Dharampal summoned snake rescuer Satish Fafdana, but before that could happen, Rajinder arrived and pounced on the cobra.

“Rajinder would perform these stunts under the influence of alcohol. He threw a cloth on the cobra, caught it, wrapped it around his neck and then his arm to make it inflate the hood. Then he taunted the cobra to bite him in front of villagers and labourers at the cremation ground gates. The cobra bit him on the right hand. Rajinder sucked the blood from the bites, indulged in some ‘jhadh phoonk’ rituals to neutralise the venom and went home putting on a brave front, but died within 30 minutes,” Dharampal told this writer.

At Rajinder’s cremation, his brother fished out 25 white sheets that the stuntman had brought home from cremations past. These were consigned to the pyre along with Zahreela.

Path from pain to painting

Rehnuma means illuminating the path. In 2001, twin girls were born to a family of labourers. One of them, named Rehnuma Rani by her distraught parents, was delivered with permanent deformities. One hand was not there. The other had stubs for fingers. Her right leg was shorter by seven inches (compared to the left limb) and its functions impaired.

Fearing incompatibility, the mother did not send Rehnuma to school. But she noticed that her daughter was stubborn enough to grip a piece of chalk between two toes of her left foot and endlessly scrawl on the hovel floor when her siblings were at school. From those indomitable doodlings was to emerge an inspirational nature artist.

Rehnuma was mocked cruelly by her classmates when her mother finally enrolled her in a Chandigarh school. But ceaseless art saved her. Under teacher guidance, art gave her an outlet. It ignited her dormant creativity and channelled her intense agony to a path of achievement and recognition. She passed Class XII and is the final year of pursuing a postgraduate programme (Master of Fine Arts) at the Government College of Art (GCA), Chandigarh. Her physically able twin sister, Khushnooda, had sacrificed her college enrolment to prioritise the family’s meagre income in favour of Rehnuma’s GCA fees.

Rehnuma’s maturing skills and sense of aesthetic composition bagged her multiple awards. The latest came this week for her lush oil painting, Anaar (Pomegranate), which was bestowed one of the three principal awards by a three-member jury constituted by WE — A Group of Indian Contemporary Women Artists, Chandigarh. Anaar was on display at ‘ARTAURA’, the 24th All India Annual Exhibition staged under the aegis of WE at Government Museum & Art Gallery.

Trees, birds, butterflies and a natural effervescence characterise Chandigarh. It is Rehnuma’s eternal muse. “I paint my dreams of nature and my observations of trees as I travel through Chandigarh on a bus. Painting nature brings me peace of mind and soul,” Rehnuma told this writer.

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