#Storytime!

In the late 90s, at a dank Ganpati Pooja celebration in Nagpur, people were sitting around all tensed up. The veriety entertainment night was stopped abruptly.

One person had just come running to the venue and screamed, "Chaddi Banyan Gang is coming!"

For us kids, this was terrifying. I mean sure we made fun of "Chaddi Baniyan" gang. That they rob people in their underwear, because wtf lol.

But on this night, the fear was very real. Soon, a colony-president-type uncle screamed, "TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!"

Darkness.

We cowered in that dark venue, only the diya in front of the Ganpati murti was visible. Some uncles and auntys crawled to the idol and started doing a silent aarti.

One of my friends had a genius idea: "Let's find this gang! I was to see if they really wear only chaddi-baniyan."

Influenced by heady adventures of Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew & Johnny Quest, all the dumb kids nodded in agreement & decided to investigate.

We set out. Every now & then someone would point to a dark figure and scream, "THERE THERE!"

But the person was always fully clothed. Dammit.

We ended up in a smol lane, it was still dark. Then, in the streetlight, curled up in a random gutter on the side, was a giant snake.

We all screamed and ran back to the venue, told the adults.

"A gang AND a snake!? We are cursed! Worst ganpati utsav ever!" they exclaimed.

One retired army uncle said, "I'll deal with the snake!"

He went into his house and came back armed with a double barrel shotgun. Everyone knew he had one, he showed it to anyone who cared.

We all marched together to the lane with the snek. Kaafi dramatic.

The kids are told to stay back, a group of adults went towards the snake in the lane.

Now there was a crowd outside, waiting to see the snek death. "BOOM BOOM", two big gunshots echoed through the colony, then silence. Then celebration, "We did it! It's dead!"

Snek was ded. But there was still no sign of the chaddi-baniyan gang. Some strange rumors started spreading in the colony that Ganesh Utsav.

The strongest one was: "The gang was about to enter a house. But then, they heard the loud gunshots & ran away. Army uncle saved us."

Every social gathering, the legendary story of how army uncle saved us all from a snek AND a gang, would be circulated.

Army uncle had a sudden rise in colony political scenes and he was the president for 5 plus years after that. Maybe more, I don't know because we moved away.

Till this day, people discuss the event and wonder if it was all a conspiracy so that army uncle could take over as president.

Or maybe he just took advantage of a situation where people were fearful, and emerged as a savior. Right place, right time.

We'll never know.