Last night, after a hectic day in
the field, me and Prabhat (my roommate and fellow batch mate) had gone to the
nearby Dhaba for a cup of tea… it was around 7in the evening and it was just
getting dark…. when I say dark…it’s in the rural context, where its difficult
for you to see your own hands at night- no matter how fair you are (not being
racist)….
I was on the phone with someone
and semi-blind as I am, did not realize that there was this huge crowd of
around 15-20 people who had gathered on the highway (I live right on the NH50)
till I bumped into one of the local lads… now I am clueless what his name is, though
I have played/attempted to play cricket with him several times… seeing me, he
started saying something in a very animated manner, in express Marathi,
excitement evoking with every syllable…. As usual my abysmal language skills came
to haunt me just about then; and I started screaming back “Hindi”..Hindi”, all
curious as to why such a large crowd has gathered and wanting to be part of the
fun(?)… hearing my anguish and understanding that I want “Hindi”…another guy
started screaming “Aajgaar”…”Aajgaar”… while I was trying to be busy figuring
out what I need to make out of that, one of the old neighbors in my village
started giving me a demo on what he meant…
Trust me, watching Ranchho give
demo with Pudine ki chutney is fun…but when your 65-70 year old neighbor “Kaka”
tries to do an impromptu striptease, showing off his thighs under his dhoti and
explaining that the “aajgaar” was as thick as that looks a bit gross...(“a
bit” actually is the understatement of the year); its revolting to say the
least… *sighs*
Anyways, enthused by Kaka’s demo,
quite a few of the youth in the crowd started giving me demos of the “Aajgar’s”
thickness- some showing off his muscles, some his neck, some his hips….we Indians seem really
fond of demos…. Possibly Aamir Khan in 3 Idiots is to be blamed for that…. …problem was,
all this while I remained clueless what an Aajgar really was, till I remembered
that a python is called “Aajgaar” in Bengali and seemed like even Marathi uses
the same word. When I asked them, they confirmed yes it was a snake.
Another strange observation I made
was, different people in the crowd seemed to have noticed different portions of
the snake’s body. People, all animated and all excited, started discussing on
top of their voice the size of the whiskers on the snakes mouth (?), whether it
was a baby snake or not, how dark the circular rings on its body were etc etc… I
realized that everyone who had appeared in the scene much after I had arrived
had a clearer picture of how big the snake was, what it weighted, its color and
the length of its whiskers and where it stays….Hmmm… Extremely knowledgeable herpetologist…
By this time, the crowd had thickened
and more people had joined in… slowly the picture evolved that a python was
found to be slithering on the National Highway, when a truck driver spotting
the snake (which is known for its slow movement), caught the snake and threw it
into the ditch beside the Highway to ensure that cars don’t run over it. The crowd was trying to find the snake from
the ditch…
On hearing this, my first
reaction was excitement- I will finally get to see a python alive and in the
wild…the second immediate thought was- are these people gathered to kill it? I started
inquiring “why are they trying to find it?”… someone told me coz they want to
save it and hand it over to forest Dept…. Can you believe the relief?
Python is one of the endangered
species of snakes in India… and the only ones I have ever seen are in
captivity. Somehow when I realized that the villagers were trying to protect
the snake, it felt really awesome…here every day we see these people barred
within the boundaries of caste, creed and what not other nonsense…and now the
same villagers from all sections and age were trying to unite together to save
a snake which they hadn’t even seen…
Search Lights, mobile torches,
even Bike Head lights joined the attempt to find the snake. But, after 45-50mins
of searching in the darkness, many a failed sightings and people scaring each
other off deliberately, we returned home with no luck of capturing and saving the
wild python.
However, more importantly, I learned
an important lesson about human behavior that night…people might struggle to co-exist,
but if they find a cause, they usually stand united…even if the cause may bring
peril to them, like finding a snake which is known to be one of the most
dangerous ones around…
PS: this is a true incident, this post is as true as it can be and i haven't dramatized anything, the site where this happened is >20 feet from my room..
Liked this one and your perspective of looking at things, trying to bring the essence really beautifully.....nice one keep it flowing !!!
ReplyDeleteHi Karthik- thanks :)
ReplyDeleteNice post..
ReplyDeleteI suggest you change the theme of your blog..
It's because I can't read a thing without highlighting it..
Bharath- thnx for feedback...done.. lemme know if u like dis?:)
Delete