While living in the Ramanthapur along the banks of a water tank, our house was on a Dolerite Dyke with red soil and partly with alluvium. About 80 meters away from our house, there was a snake hill or nest, locally called ‘Pamula Putta.’ The terrestrial snakes prefer to reside especially in the red soils, which give more comfort by relatively remaining dry during the rainy season too. These are the original residence places of the ants or termites, after they are abandoned the snakes occupy as their homes. Hindu women worship snakes, especially once in a year during Nagula Panchami. The putta mannu or ant hill soil has a great value for maintaining - biomass stoves, the earth floor and the mud walls in the traditional houses.
It was during the summer vacation; I was studying in 6th class. It was a hot day. As we were living in the asbestos corrugated roof house, it was even hotter. Electricity supply was never continuous to run the ceiling fan. It was very very hot outside, as it was afternoon. My mother did not permit me to go out and play in the scorching heat. She asked me to sleep for some time. So I chose a room partitioned in our kitchen which was relatively cool.
I slept on the bare floor, for about an hour. My elder sister woke me up, telling that kerosene has come in the ration shop and I should go and get it. In those days one needs to hurry up to collect the Kerosene as and when it arrives at the ration shop. Otherwise, it would be over soon. We did not knew when the next stock would come. The shop owner also sells some of it in the black market and always creates a shortage. Some people use it as fuel in the autorickshaws and other vehicles, replacing petrol or diesel as it was low priced due to the subsidy. So there was always a shortage of kerosene. We had two kerosene wick stoves and also a biomass stove in the courtyard. LPG was a luxury in those days, so we could not afford an LPG stove. I left to Narsing’s ration-shop with the empty Kerosene Dabba, i.e., five liters reuse Castrol tin can. We had to stand in a queue even for getting kerosene. Getting sugar, kerosene and sometimes wheat from the ration shop was a big task for me, especially waiting in queue for hours.
While I was returning home, saw a huge crowd around the house. At first, I thought, there must be some street fighting going. But my doubts grew, and anxiety multiplied as I saw people going towards our house. Someone told me that there was a huge cobra snake inside our house.
It happened that when I left to the ration shop, my elder sister Ms Subhadra, started cleaning the room with a broomstick. She went into the place where I was sleeping in the afternoon. As she reached the corner of the room, she heard some sound. She was afraid and called my mother. My mother also heard the hissing sound and thought cats were fighting and making the hissing sound. This room was dark at that time as there were no windows and there was no electricity. She at first thought that the sound might be coming from the trunk box in the corner. She opened the hinged lid of the box, on the top, there was a cloth cover, which fell backside of the trunk box. She did not find anything. Still, the sound was there and it was even louder. She slowly dragged the trunk box and saw the cloth which fell backwards in the corner. Now she lifted the cloth, and for her shock, she saw a huge cobra standing on its hood. She ran out of the house in fear. Called some people to do something about the snake. That was when I have arrived.
Many people had the experience of killing snakes, but they were not interested in killing this particular snake. Because in this room, one of the shelves was used for praying. All the idols and images of the gods were there with a small lamp lit. This snake pointed towards that shelf with its full hood was not moving at all. Everybody said that it is a Gods snake and they would not kill it. Traditionally we also pray Cobra, consider it as Naga Devatha or Cobra Snake God. So my mother slowly approached towards the snake from a safe distance and prayed it to go away. Yet, it did not move an inch. She thought of finding someone who could do something to get this snake away. She left the doors open and was walked briskly towards the temple nearby. The priest of the Satyanarayana Swamy temple was preparing himself to go to the temple. He was putting the vermillion on his forehead and body at that time in the courtyard. He saw my mother rushing, asked her what the problem was? She told the situation. He said although we consider it as a God, it is a poisonous creature, we cannot live with it. He promised that he would come and see for himself. He also tried to let it go away from the room; it did not move an inch. It was still focussed and remained still. Now he took the task to himself, he said, I do pooja and pray God every day, so if I kill it, there is no problem to him. He took a boulder and from behind climbed the separating wall in the room and just dropped the boulder on it. With a thud, the snake was killed, and there was blood splashed all over the place. Now people slowly came in, to see and pulled it outside. Someone put a copper coin in its mouth, and the people cremated it with due respect. The burnt copper coin, later was tied to a thread and tied around the waist of some child. It was considered auspicious. The traditional belief was that if they burn it, its soul will not take revenge. Later in the life of the poojari, there were many problems, and he became very poor and sold his house and left the temple too. My mother used to say that poojari faced all those problems because he killed the snake.
Now, the topic of the talk was, how I could sleep with a cobra in the same room. Because when I left, my elder sister immediately started sweeping the floor and the snake was there already. Some people said I passed through the ‘pamu gandam’ (threat to life from a snake), which could have taken my life.
Some days later, a small cobra entered our house. In those days the power cuts were for hours together. We used to have a kerosene lamp. It was around 7:30 p.m. My father was also there at home. We just returned from the ration shop and kept the bag leaning against the wall. My mother lifted the bag to take out the things from the bag and found this baby cobra. My father killed it.
Another time, my mother was doing gardening work during the rainy season. She saw a small banded krait snake emerging from the hole in the basement of our neighbour’s house. She saw this and, she killed it with the bricks lying nearby, and went out to throw it outside the compound wall. When she returned saw another one emerging out, and killed that as well. She was waiting to see if any more would emerge. On the whole 18 snakes appeared, including a big snake, probably its mother. She killed all of them. With so many poisonous snakes within the compound, it would have been risky to our lives too. We still appreciate her courage to deal with the poisonous snakes for the safety of the family.
The GEO research center started at Jangaon was in the midst of agricultural fields. In the early days after procuring the land, once I was walking towards the GEO Meet place. This place had very dense plants. I was observing the birds and looking upwards. Suddenly with a hiss, a cobra opened its hood. I turned and saw a big cobra just behind me. I still remember the pipe in its mouth opened during the hiss. It immediately went under the asbestos sheets placed on the ground. I realized, we are in the natural habitat of the snakes, so should give respect to their space. Since then, whenever, I walked in the wilderness or bushes, walked with caution and with full presence of mind. Sighting of snakes in the GEO Research Center became common. I saw many varieties of snakes.
After completing one of the rooms at the GEO Research center, I decided to stay at the center. The first day I stayed there is memorable. I came with my two kids. Mr Mahesh who was working with me was staying in the town. This day, I said we are going to stay tonight at the center. Having seen so many snakes around, he was afraid. There was no power and the room was just completed. My kids feeling secure in my presence did not have any fear and they agreed to stay at the center. There was a lamp made with an empty liquor bottle by inserting a wick. The light wobbles with the slightest of the wind. My children slept in the middle, Mahesh was searching for a place guessing, if snakes enter into the room how and in which direction they would move. After about 10 minutes of planning, he had chosen a safe place to sleep.
Later we bought some foldable beds, whenever I stayed there, I always slept on the foldable bed laid outside in the open. Letting the snakes pass by without any hindrance to their natural paths. No animal harms humans unless they are threatened, or else it is just an accident.
In one of the rooms which was constructed with the earth walls, there appeared a huge termite mound about 1.5 meters above the floor. Initially, we tried to remove it by chiselling away the soil and also sprinkled Kumkum and Turmeric. But it appeared again. People said it would attract snakes and could become a habitat. I left it as it is. Considering that this house was constructed in their habitat, and there was nothing wrong in giving some space for them to live with us.
