It was 6 PM in the evening and getting dark slowly. We have
generally good amount greenery in our layout. There are many houses in Royal
Park Residency which is our layout; we do have some vacant sites too. Once in a
while we see some strangers too!
But we had an uninvited and totally unknown guest yesterday getting into our house premises. The guest was looking quiet and calm, but appeared to be dangerous if not handled properly. My wife and kids were alone there at home.
In the evening my wife was trying to check the water level in our underground water tank and opened the first stone slab placed over there. So far so good.. but when she opened the second slab… Alas !! She got the shock of her life !!!
By now, you must have guessed it.. our guest was none other a Snake..! Not a king cobra.,. but a junior one.. 3-4 feet in length! probably one of kids! For a moment she did not know what to do, whether to place the stone back or take out the stone completely. Any of her actions would have caused either harm to the animal or herself.
She immediately called our daughter Anushree slowly pulled out the stone. By now even Anu was also little scared the way mother screamed. She approached her mother in lightening speed. But while all this was going on, our junior cobra fell into the water tank !! Water level was hardly 2-3 feet. Mother and daughter duo looked at each other questioningly. Of course they had recovered now to good extent now, because they knew snake could not fly out of the tank and harm them ! J
· If the same incident would have happened 10 years back, we would have killed the snake! I guess the awareness on wildlife is increasing slowly. Not even for a moment they thought of killing that snake! I appreciate them for this thought process and felt very happy for that.
These are some of real life lessons. We don’t learn them in any classroom. I try to focus more on such lessons. I don’t mind if my daughter gets 60 or 70 marks in class tests, but on this occasion she got 100 out 100! I am very happy for her. I wish and do hope our kids will score well in their real life's lessons.
But we had an uninvited and totally unknown guest yesterday getting into our house premises. The guest was looking quiet and calm, but appeared to be dangerous if not handled properly. My wife and kids were alone there at home.
In the evening my wife was trying to check the water level in our underground water tank and opened the first stone slab placed over there. So far so good.. but when she opened the second slab… Alas !! She got the shock of her life !!!
By now, you must have guessed it.. our guest was none other a Snake..! Not a king cobra.,. but a junior one.. 3-4 feet in length! probably one of kids! For a moment she did not know what to do, whether to place the stone back or take out the stone completely. Any of her actions would have caused either harm to the animal or herself.
She immediately called our daughter Anushree slowly pulled out the stone. By now even Anu was also little scared the way mother screamed. She approached her mother in lightening speed. But while all this was going on, our junior cobra fell into the water tank !! Water level was hardly 2-3 feet. Mother and daughter duo looked at each other questioningly. Of course they had recovered now to good extent now, because they knew snake could not fly out of the tank and harm them ! J
They thought now for a while, how to protect this guy,
without harming him and themselves. In the meanwhile my son Chirag also joined
them. All of their focus was now our guest. Initially they took a pipe and
inserted into the tank. Naa..naa!! Our guy is not able to hold onto that
and come up..! Without losing hope, they inserted a think rope and asked the
junior cobra to hold on to that and climb... still no..!! Probably he is not
understanding their instructions.. what to do…? Language problem..!! :)
Now they were running of ideas.. suppose if the snake dies
inside the tank..we have empty the whole tank and clean it up..naa..?
That would cost somewhere around Rs.1500 to 2000..! Oh my GOD..! Big financial
risk!
You can imagine now, all three of them sitting on the side of
water tank and doing some serious brainstorming on "how to protect this
uninvited guest..?". At the same time, they cannot take their eyes off the
gentleman who was swimming inside !!
Already 20 minutes passed by. Suddenly a thought flashed in
Anushree's mind and she blinked her eyes! She said "Mummy ! We have got a
fishnet like laundry bag.. no..? It is about 2 feet in length . Why don’t we
tie it to a pair of strings and drop it inside the tank. Our snake maharaja
will listen to our instructions and get inside the laundry bag!. (What an idea
Sirji..? Sorry Madam ji..? )
But my wife Teju was not in a state any one's suggestion now!
She immediately got into action.. rushed inside the house and brought the
laundry bag. All of them like a sincere project team members tied the bag to
two strings and dropped it inside the water tank.
I am not sure whether they were singing "Mai teri
dushman" song from Sridevi starrer "NAGINA"...! But definitely
after few attempts , our gentleman Snake got into the soft trap laid by my
family members !
First hurdle cleared..! What next..? They slowly pulled the
snake GOD along with the bag out of water tank. My wife Teju, the project
manager of this massive rescue operation asked our two wonderful kids to get
away from her. She walked a little distance away from our house and released
this gentleman Snake to the greenery in a vacant site. The junior cobra quietly
moved away without troubling any one!
Happy Ending!! Abba..! Teju sighed in relief, but could not help
appreciating her daughters timely wisdom! When I returned home in the
night, there was a big story in store to be narrated!
My intent of sharing this story is not to boast about my family.
I am sharing it for few reasons.
·
Our children are not burdened by other hassles of materialistic
life outside. They are able to think differently. Their thoughts are so clean
and innovative. There is nothing wrong in approaching them when we have
problems in hands.
· If the same incident would have happened 10 years back, we would have killed the snake! I guess the awareness on wildlife is increasing slowly. Not even for a moment they thought of killing that snake! I appreciate them for this thought process and felt very happy for that.
·
Most importantly they did not panic in crisis and took the right
decisions. A slightest mistake would have either harmed any of them or the
animal itself.
These are some of real life lessons. We don’t learn them in any classroom. I try to focus more on such lessons. I don’t mind if my daughter gets 60 or 70 marks in class tests, but on this occasion she got 100 out 100! I am very happy for her. I wish and do hope our kids will score well in their real life's lessons.
My request to all of you would be – Please orient your kids and
family on such things. It will be a great help!
