Me: ‘Where was it?’
Mom: In my room, almost about to enter the bathroom
Me: And?
Mom: It must have sensed my footsteps and quickly turned back and climbed out of the window, probably from where it came in.
Me: Did you take a picture of it?
Mom: No, the camera and phone were both in the other room; I didn’t want to shift focus from it, so just stood there, observing and watching it
Me: Ok, good... Did it have any ‘V’ mark on its head? How big was it?
Mom: No it didn’t, it didn’t seem to be a cobra. It was about a meter long, not very big...But I was wondering what if it had got into the heap of clothes near the window, and if I had left it unnoticed for a long time?
Me: Don’t worry... most of the time they are harmless... but make sure you don’t get a shock if you spot one like that... in such cases, just open the door or window slowly and make some noise in the opposite direction, so that it goes out.
Mom: Hmmm... So you are now re-teaching me the lesson that I had taught you!!
Me: Oh yeah... :D
Yes, yes, you guessed it right. We were talking about a snake that had entered her room yesterday. Wondering how we could be so cool about it? Well, it is not the first time that a snake came in... not even the second, third or fourth time. We have in fact lost count of such instances... It keeps happening at least a couple of times a year inside home and many more times around, in the last two and a half decades of staying there. We were literally the first family to build a house in that part of Bangalore about 3 decades ago and for almost a decade ours was the only house, the nearest other building about half a km away. I’m sure mom, being a nature lover would have loved staying in such a place, with plants, trees, birds, animals and of course reptiles around, when dad was off to work during the day. How I wish I was staying in such a place now... well, it’s a tragedy there is no such place in Bangalore now, with every plant and tree being replaced by a high rise apartment or a shopping mall....
Coming to the point on snakes, I have so many experiences with snakes (just spotting the visitor of course, nothing else) not only in my maiden house but also the current one, that I thought of putting up here whatever I remembered. Before that please do remember that not all snakes are venomous, in fact very few are. If they were, then I would not be alive and writing them here!! And note that we, people, have encroached upon their habitats that they have no other place to go to and so show up in our homes at times. It is a sad thing that most of the times, snakes are associated with a lot of myths and just brutally killed. Come to think of it, it is these creatures that put a check on rodents like rats and mice, and maintain a balance in nature.
The world is not created only for man, in fact, if you ask me, he was a misfit here, in this beautiful world, that he is destroying all of it, and finally himself too.
Some good reads with information on snakes and what you should do in case of a snake bite:
More snake experiences of mine will soon follow.
