Vaikom Muhammad Basheer is the writer of ‘The Snake and the Mirror”. He is a famous story teller from Kerala. The story is humorous. It tells us the experience of a young home doctor with a snake. The doctor was living alone in a small room with tiled roof. It was a hot summer night. He entered his room late at night. He tried to sleep but couldn’t. It was hot and he sat on a chair in front of a mirror and tried to read a book. There was a noise in the roof once or twice. But he did not bother about it because there were a lot many rats moving around. He started dreaming about marrying a fat, rich lady doctor.

Suddenly there was a ‘thud’ like sound. As he turned back to see what it was, there was a strong, long cobra coiling around his left hand with its hood wide open and just four inches away from his face. He at once became like a stone in fear. But his mind was active. As he was thinking of how to save himself, the snake saw its image in the mirror. It seemed that the snake was interested in its beauty. So it slipped down on to the table and moved towards the mirror. The doctor took this opportunity to run away from the room to a friend’s house. The following morning he came! back to his room with his friend. There was no snake. The room was almost empty. Some! thief had taken away all his belongings except a dirty vest. The doctor answers a listener’s question by saying he married a woman who was lean and an expert in running!