It's a languorous sunny day, the kind when one feels much too languid to do much. I'm slouched in a deckchair on the veranda, an open book on my lap, gazing at the lush little garden and the coconut and cashew grove beyond.
Slowly I become aware of the almost frenetic activity that's going on around me. Some bees are buzzing madly, one with its nose nuzzling an open flower. Dragonflies hover above the hibiscus, the sun glinting on their filigree wings. Butterflies, lots of them, flutter nervously. A tiny bird has plunged its thin long curved beak into a pink flower and is sucking deeply. Two equally tiny black and white birds, who have made a secret nest inside a bush of fragrant white zai flowers, flit back and forth. There's a lone fat squirrel that keeps dashing up and down the cashew tree trunk, thumping its tail and shrieking. High up on a coconut tree a solitary bird is singing.
Courtship, pollination, procreation . . . my garden has become a hotbed of sexual activity.
And then I see a snake, not a common sight in the daytime. And slowly I make the connection between the snake and the zai flowers. The snake has come to eat the frog, who the night before was hiding in the zai flowers to eat the insects who – like besotted lovers - were irresistibly drawn to the seductive fragrance. I'm always being told by my villager neighbours not to plant fragrant flowers anywhere near the house because they attract snakes; and always I dismiss what they say, thinking: But snakes have no sense of smell.
The frightened little frog goes hop-hop-hop close against the wall. The long black snake slithers after it, swift, silent and intent. They both disappear behind some plants. Suddenly the sunny garden seems full of menace. Somewhere a sea eagle screams. After a while the snake reappears and glides out of sight. No frog. R.I.P.
It strikes me later that the snake was no villain. He was just doing what snakes are meant to do. Good and evil do not exist in the natural world. It's human beings alone who can be truly evil. Why then, I wonder, do I fear the snake more?
2 comments:
You naughty girl, you choice of title made my perverse mallu heart palpitate with anticipation only to realize that you were not talking about ‘the garden of eden’ variety of snake, but a silly frog catcher. While on the subject let me tell you about a particular ‘snake incident’ – I was living at the crocodile bank in Chennai in the director’s bungalow (a school friend) who had a boa constrictor, called Charlie Brown as a pet- the tribals used to feed him a live rat every day- his cage was mostly open and he would crawl around the house as he pleased. He was 16 years old around 8 feet long and lived in the bungalow all his life- in the evening he would come to the living room, choose his person of the day and wrap himself around the person’s middle section (for warmth ) – he did it to me one day and I managed to survive it but his sudden ‘love squeezes’ when you can feel him tightening his hold like he is programmed to do sent shivers down my spine-
Are you aware that crocs do not use their prominent teeth to chew; they swallow their prey- the teeth are used to grab animals, hold them under water until they drown and then they swallow the entire animal. The metabolism process of reptiles is very slow because they never move without purpose and can lie in hibernation for long periods of time
I lived in a house briefly where someone had kept a snake, unknown to me. One day i was all alone and I heard a sound like the crackling of dry leaves. The snake had come out of hiding and was shedding its skin. Imagine my terror. Still nothing like having a boa constrictor constricting you!as for crocodiles, the only croc i know is the Roald Dahl children's tale, The Enormous Crocodile. Hilarious. Read it. Dahl can be read at any age.
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