snake attacks

More about snakes
“I don’t know why ma, you see snakes wherever you go.”
I protested, “I don’t see snakes! They really are there. Your grandfather actually killed one in the house.”
She was referring to the new snake, the bane of our lives. We had just finished the construction of our new house into which we planned to move in a couple of months. The garden was wild and overgrown. As I asked the contractor to clean it he said, “I can’t get any workers to do it , there is a snake.”
He pointed to an ant hill in the far corner.
“That “ I told him “is an ant hill.”
“Oh no,” he said, “it is a snake pit.”
I looked it up on Google. Apparently snakes eat ants, termites and whatever else lives in the pit. It is a sort of parasitic existence.
“Can we not pour a little kerosene on it and set it alight?”
Personally I thought it was a brilliant solution. Termites, ants and other vermin whatever it contained, disappearing in one glorious blaze.
The difficulty was that no one was willing to stomp through the underbrush (which may have lurking snakes) and approach the ant hill.
“We” announced the contractor “have to employ a snake charmer.”
He produced a snake charmer a couple of days later. A dirty wizened man in a loin cloth with many beads around his neck, his hair pinned to one side and a mobile phone in his pocket.
“How much?”I asked.
“Rs. 6000/ “- he said. “It is a dangerous business. “
“Too much “ I said.
He looked condescendingly at me. “There are many snakes there. When you want me, call. Here is my number.” He actually had a visiting card saying “world famous snake charmer” with a mobile number printed on it.
“I know snakes only live in pairs,” I said. (I had looked that up also).
“Books don’t know everything” he said, “I know.”
I spoke to my husband about it. “I am facing a lot of problems in getting the new house ready. There is a snake there.”
“How does that worry you? The snake is in the garden.” He disappeared for his daily run.
My mother in law called the next day. “I heard you have a snake in your new house.”
News travels fast in the family grape vine. “Yes, I have a snake in the garden.”
“All you need to do,” said my mother in law is to get a picture of St George killing the dragon and hang it in your house. The snake will not come .”
“Can the snake see the picture?” asked my grandson.
I had no answer for that.
I down loaded a picture from the internet, fixed it to a stick and stabbed the ant hill with it from a safe distance.
No one saw the snake for a couple of days. Perhaps St. George really worked?
I employed some labourers to shift the furniture. The thumping and movement must have disturbed the snake. It emerged and wriggled really fast in the garden.
“Yahoo” shouted a labourer, “snake snake!”. He was a particularly nasty looking specimen. He had a blue plastic earring in one ear, a denim shirt saying “Rajinikanth” and a red bandana.
He caught the snake by its neck and threw it against the granite wall. The snake fell down stunned. He then leapt around and beat it to death.
“Do you want to burn it?”
“Nah,” he said as he flung the mutilated snake over the compound wall.
I almost felt sorry for the poor creature.
Dr. Gita Mathai
The writer is a paediatrician with a family practice at Vellore.
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