Around a Medicinal Creeper Summary

Introduction

K.P. Poornachandra Tejaswi is one of the most prominent Kannada writers known for his distinct style of writing. He has written some of the best known novels and short stories. Born in Malnad, he imbibed a natural love for nature and a keen interest in unravelling its mysteries. After his post graduate studies he chose to follow his heart. His passion for agriculture, photography, ornithology, nature and writing took him to Mudigere, a pocket of Malnad. All of his eminence as a writer and a votary of environmental and social issues began from this heartland. He cut away from his father, Kuvempu’s influence and created his own niche in Kannada literature.

Synopsis

‘Around a Medicinal Creeper’ is a humorous story with serious concerns at its core. It revolves around a medicinal creeper and its unique therapeutic values. It highlights the importance of our system of medicine and a treasure of medicinal plants in our forests. The story stresses the need to know about these plants. K.P. Poornachandra Tejaswi shows how the entire system of Indian medicine suffers from mystification. He regrets that those who know about the unique properties of these plants and herbs do not share information. In this story he takes us to the mysterious world of forests through the characters of Mara, Sanna, Appanna, Krishna etc,. and gives us a sense of the real wealth of medicinal plants in the womb of our verdant forests.

 

Plot

K.P. Poornachndra Tejaswi talks about a medicinal creeper that took him almost twenty years to learn beyond stories around it. Mara found this while sifting the bundle of some creepers that Sanna had brought from the forest. Mara identified this as a medicinal creeper. The writer out of curiosity went with Sanna and Mara to find the creeper in the forest. Sanna showed the creeper and Mara immediately tied one of the tendrils to a tree. He said that he had done it because the creeper had been cursed that when someone needed it, it should not be found.

About the creeper and stories around it!

This is a creeper with small leaves that resemble betel leaves and bears fruits in a bunch like grapes. This plant comes up soon after the rains and fruits and dies. It will not be seen till the next rainy season. That is how, the author says, the plant is tied to a tree nearby so that it can be easily seen. According to the writer, stories around these medicinal creepers could be true and false. He says that the entire system of Indian medicine suffers from this kind of mystification. When he wished to share a few things he had learnt from many people like Mara, his doctor friends became annoyed and called him ignoramus. He expresses his dismay over the forests that are fast disappearing now and those who know about the precious plants and herbs who are also leaving us one by one. He was so thrilled to hear so many stories from Mara revolving around this medicinal creeper that each one was marvelous.

No blood, no wound!

The story goes like this. One day Mara while cutting the bamboo shoot thrust his hands through the bamboo cane and accidentally cut his hand. It started bleeding profusely and someone brought some leaf, pressed it against the wound and bandaged it with a cloth. Mara went to the white man at Hulihindalu for dressing and treatment. When the white man opened the bandage and removed the leaf, there was no blood and no wound. The doctor asked Mara to show the plant of the leaf in the forest. They searched for an entire day but did not find.

When the writer called Mara’s story fabricated, he told another story about the mongoose and the cowcal which know about this plant. Accordingly, when they hunt poisonous snakes, they are bitten by them. They immediately chew this leaf and cure themselves.

How Mara’s teeth tumbled out!

Once, Mara had laid a trap in the forest to catch rabbits. He went into the forest before daybreak to check. The trap was empty. Disappointed, he decided to return home. Later, he thought of brushing his teeth and washing his face in a nearby stream. He broke a small stick from a nearby plant to brush a third or fourth time and felt a sour taste. He thought there was something wrong with the stick and threw it. He wanted to rinse his mouth. After churning it around in his mouth, spat it out. All the teeth which had been touched by that stick tumbled out of his mouth.   

A live wild buck jumps up!

Long ago, Mara along with his friend laid a trap and caught a barking deer. They took it to the nearby stream to divide between them. After dividing the meat, they wrapped their portions in some leaves and brought them home. In Mara’s house as they prepared to cook, opened the packet to take out the meat. Surprise awaited them as a live buck jumped up and ran out of his house. While Mara was trying to catch it, his wife ignorantly threw the leaves into the fire. This shows how ignorant people are in general when they are not informed. There is a need to create awareness about our natural resources.

How milk becomes firm and rubbery!

The author once heard from Appanna that if the juice of this creeper’s leaves is squeezed into milk, it will turn hard. He was not happy with such stories and wanted to experiment on his own. He along with his plant pathologist friend Chandru took a litre of milk and put the milk and leaves into a mixer and switched it on. After they were thoroughly mixed, they poured it out into a vessel. For a couple of minutes nothing happened. After some time, when the writer checked, it had become firm and rubbery. When they inverted the vessel, the whole thing fell out like a moulded cast. The writer was convinced that this creeper really had some properties.

Krishna finds a cure!

One day Tejaswi’s erstwhile farmhand Krishna came to see him. He looked pale and breathless. He had stopped working in the estate some time ago and was driving a rickshaw. When he changed his job, he started passing blood with stools. It had become now more serious and he was tired, breathless and wheezing. He seemed to have piles. Surgery would really mean an expensive treatment. It was very difficult for the man to go through it. He was scared of surgery. Krishna knew a Malyali sadhu who had treated him on an earlier occasion when he had developed boils. After the treatment he never got a boil again. He went to see the godman again. But the sadhu had become too old by now. He did not have the strength to search for this plant but he could describe it. Krishna had to search for this plant, dig out the tuberous root, mix it with milk and drink the medicine for five days. He ground this root and drank it with milk. Within a day his piles improved. He was completely cured in five days.

In addition to these stories, the writer himself experienced the wonderful healing properties of this medicinal creeper when he ate the piece of the plant’s root, his pain in his heel out of swelling disappeared.

Conclusion

The author concludes that this medicinal creeper is so unique that no research is done to know about the full benefits of the plant. For people like Mara, it is of no importance and the native doctors like Malayali sadhu do not share information about such medicinal plants. They continue to maintain the myth that if they told others about their medicines, the medicine would lose their potency. That is how our native medicinal systems are on the verge of extinction. Thus, he urges the necessity to undertake serious research about these invaluable natural resources so that our medicinal system could be promoted and information about it could be shared.   

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