poetry of life

“You will be staying in the middle of a forest full of poisonous creatures.” Our driver looked pretty intense when he said that.

Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team (ANET) is situated in the outskirts of Port Blair. On arrival, we were handed a mosquito repellent (which we would be thankful for later) and a torch to watch every step.

Our room was a small walk deeper in the forest. Standing on wooden pillars, it was surprisingly clean. The caretaker pointed towards a wooden box in the middle of nowhere when I asked him where I could empty myself.

“Do I stand here in pain or sit there in fear?” The giant spider hanging next to the toilet seat had surely put me in a dilemma. I realized I might need a new pair of pants soon. So I went, and fear only helped the process.

Night fell. I saw a familiar man sitting in the mess. So I casually asked our host, “Have I seen him on National Geographic?”
“Yes, he is the founder of ANET, Romulus Whitaker.” She replied.

It felt great to be sitting next to the man I’d watched a lot on TV. They asked if we wanted to join them for a walk on the beach that was a few minutes drive away, to study sea kraits. And we agreed as if we were some kind of professionals in catching snakes.

On our way to the beach, I asked one of the assistants about what kind of anti-venom they had with them.

“No anti-venom for this one.”
“Why?”
“We haven’t studied him enough to make one.”
“So how far is the nearest hospital?”
“Don’t worry, if this one bites you, you won’t have time to find a hospital.”

My friend and I looked at each other, and a silent laugh dipped in fear came out.

We were going to find snakes that were poisonous and crawled out of the ocean to the trees in dark to relax and mate. And our job was to cross ways with them! Yeah that sounded like a good idea.

Truth be told, it was one of the most beautiful nights of my life. The calm atmosphere, the moonlit sky, the waves thrashing the shore one after another, I hadn’t understood a beach like that before.

What calmed us was the docile nature (or possibly the acute laziness) of the beautiful creature. I too spotted a few sea kraits and got patted on my back by the project leader. I don’t get patted that often so it did feel good.

We returned after a couple of hours, talked about the species over a cup of well-earned hot tea and retired to our rooms.

Three years gone and I still wonder, what if it’d bitten me? Well dead or alive, I would be in the news for sure.