Pure, pulsating energy!
What supreme might and power packed into one long body no thicker than
your fore-arm. No arms to wield mighty
weapons, no legs to deliver a well aimed kick, no horns to butt, no weight to
crush you underfoot! Just a sliver of a
forked tongue and a strike at the speed of lightening! Just one strike and you could bid adieu to
this world!
What is in a Cobra that invokes such awe that you could
stand spell-bound and watch it forever ?
Oh the beauty of its rippling scales, its sharp eyes that watch your
every move, its total supremacy over the entire world!
We see scores of snakes around the farm. Most of them are the non-poisonous rat snakes
(Pytas Mucosa / Deevad in Konkani ). And I guess if it wasn't for them, we would have had rats around the house.
A
couple of Russell’s vipers are sighted but mostly at night - with their beautiful patterned scales – you
bet the pochampalli silk design is a copy of the pattern on the Russels
viper!
See this painting depicting a girl wearing a Pochampalli sari and you will know what I mean.
A painting by German Artist Hermann Linde (c 1895) |
An ocassioanl Sand boa has made an appearance – in fact once
during the time when we had to sleep in the tent near the rice fields to keepboars at bay, we came home in the morning to find Posha our cat doing what we
call a snake dance in front of the fridge. He puffs up like a Kathakali dancer,
perches on his toes (okay, call them claws) and lowering his head, moves it –
left to right, right to left peering ahead. It is a soundless dance sometimes, and
sometimes he makes a growling sound. We shone the torch below the fridge and
sure enough could see some shiny, rippling thing below. It was extremely
sluggish and slow, and even when we moved the fridge, it did not try to run
away. Vivek managed to put it into a large gunny bag and
released it in the forest. We managed to
keep the boars away, but came home to face a Boa!
The dogs are
unperturbed by most of them. Johnny,
with his inherent farm skills, knows exactly which snake is poisonous and stays
away, but takes pleasure in chasing the Rat snakes. The rest of our canine brigade, city-bred as
they are, think they can chase and play with any snake. Johnny has a special bark for poisonous
snakes and just recently we realised that he has an extra special bark for the
Cobra!
It sounds like a low gruff
warning “GRUFFFFFFFFF” and he does not
run out, but stands still watching it.
You can follow his line of sight to speed up else you will not even
notice the slithering soundless movement that barely even moves a blade of
grass. And this is how we caught sight
of this royal visitor who deigned to
give us a rare sighting!
Hi there, you have articulated so wonderfully. I'm all the more inspired to not just visit but actually tent it out with the both of you. The pics you have posted are awesome. Especially the cobra and Russell. Keep posting pachi
ReplyDeleteNice write up, Tanu! I've shifted to our company staff quarters in Chembur, where we are in the lap of nature and there are plenty of reptiles. Tho' others have seen them (some on a daily basis) I'm yet to encounter one. - Sushma Koppikar
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