Click to play videoBenad (Rajasthan): Truth is stranger than fiction. Norti Devi, a poor woman in a small village in Rajasthan will justify this statement, for she is currently struggling to save her land as the locals want to make a temple on her property for what they call was a divine incident of cobra sati.
Norti Devi is a mother of four and has a small shop, which doubles up as her home. The land is her only property and her source of livelihood.
But now, Norti Devi is being forced by villagers to give it up. The reason - this is the place where villagers say they saw a miracle when a female cobra jumped into the funeral pyre of her mate.
People are flocking to see the pyre, which they say has been burning for 10 days now.
Heaps of coconuts around the pyre show that people have already started believing in the Sati Nagin, but for Norti Devi the miracle is misery.
Says Norti Devi, "The villagers are just trying to make money by all this drama. Daily, there is a lot of singing and dancing here and they cannot afford this if they were not making money. I don't have time for all this. All I care about is the fact that me and my children will go hungry if we lose our land."
In an overnight makeover, the sleepy village of Benad has turned into a pilgrimage and people from far off villages across age groups have started visiting the site of Sati Nagin.
Many of them even believe that the Cobra Goddess can heal sick people.
Says a resident of a neaby village Murlipura, Maliram Agarwal, "She is a Sati, she was Sati and she will remain so. The government has put an end to human Satis but this is God's avatar in the snakes, Sati will remain, no one can stop this."
Agarwal claims to be a eyewitness to the incident.
The incident has done good things to the local economy. Shops of flowers, coconuts and incense sticks have mushroomed across this road overnight. But for Norti Devi who stands to lose all that she has to it future looks bleaker with every passing day.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.