My attention has been focused on snakes in recent months. First, on January 16th, my favorite Bollywood dancer/actress Morocco-born Nora Fatehi released a music video, titled “Snake” featuring a mesmerizing sensational dance routine together with American rapper Jason Terulo. A few months earlier, I read the story about Elvish Yadav, the famous YouTuber who was arrested last years, among other reasons, for using snake venom for recreational purpose. Then January 30th was the Chinese New Year and according to the Chinese calendar, the year that started would be the year of the snake.
My feelings about snakes are a mixture of fear and fascination. I grew up in Chandan Nagar, a suburb of Kolkata in a house on the bank of river Ganges. An alarming aspect of riverside living was frequent infiltration of the house and surrounding compound by snakes coming up from the river. One of my earliest memories was the sight of a snake crawling over our rear (khirki) door as I watched from my mother’s arm with lots of screaming and shouting going on. The year was 1953. A neighbor died of snake bite. Many of the snakes were not poisonous but instilled a fear in me. This fear was only reinforced by movies like “Nagin” and mythological tale of Behula and Lakshmindara. Silent and unexpectedly approach of snakes and their slithery appearances made them seem more dangerous than fox or bear.
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At a different house, a little farther from the river when I was in high school in 1964, a small python sneaked in and tried to swallow a kitten. Fortunately, our domestic help Murali woke up by the noise, got hold of a bamboo and killed the snake with just one strike right on its head!
At the same time, I was always impressed by the magical ability of snake charmers to control movements of the most dangerous snakes like Cobra. It has always been fascinating to see how women can dance moving their bodies just like a snake, whether it is Nora Fatehi or Sridevi (in the movie “Nagina”) or Vyjayanthimala with that iconic hypnotic music from “Nagin”.
During my college years in Kolkata and subsequent life in the USA, this phobia about snakes ebbed gradually but the fear was still dormant inside my head. I avoided watching movies like “Anaconda”, “Snake in a Plane” or National Geographic channel specials on snakes. I have been horrified by clips on YouTube showing bodies of adult men being dug out from belly of pythons in Asian countries like Thailand and Indonesia.
The area behind my present hillside home in San Clemente, California is full of brushes, trees and shrubs. I have occasionally seen snakes near my backyard but they quickly disappeared in the hillside. I was not alarmed and felt sympathy for the snakes because it was me who invaded their natural habitat.
Recently, I faced a problem of mice infestation. Of course, mice are not poisonous but still can be unhealthy and it is a creepy sight to see mice in one’s own kitchen. I tried to get rid of them using various tools such as mouse traps, D-Con rat killer tablets and those traps consisting of a board with adhesive on it.
I did kill several mice but a few of them still remained hidden in the house as evidenced by droppings and occasional sighting. This battle with mice dragged on for months but the mice suddenly disappeared earlier this year. Right around that time, as I was going to bed one night, I saw a snake – in MY OWN BEDROOM ON SECOND FLOOR – under one of the night stands. I had no idea where it came from. The scary part was the hissing noise it was making. I quickly covered the snake with a plastic trash can before it had any chance to retaliate. Then I slowly slipped a cardboard under the can so that the snake was trapped between the board and the plastic can. I lifted the whole assembly and took it all the way outside of the house to the back patio. I put a heavy weight on the (upside down) trash can so that snake could not just crawl from under it.
I was genuinely worried and scared. I wondered if there were more snakes hiding in various nooks and holes in my home. My mind thinks of the worst-case scenario in a crisis situation. I would probably have to sell the house. Should I disclose that the house may have snakes when I sell? That would bring the price down significantly even if it sells at all. Can the buyer later sue me if I do not say anything about snakes and later, they discover them? I even envisioned the headline about my death: “A San Clemente man died in his bedroom from snakebite”.
The girl at the local pest control company was surprised: “we handle gophers, mice, spiders, ants and other bugs but I never heard of a snake problem”. She suggested that I call the city animal control department. The lady at the animal control promised to have the right person give me a call back.
A friendly woman, Jill did call me back and her first question was “Is it a rattler?” I answered with a chuckle “you have to understand that I did not spend a whole lot of time examining it. All I can say is that it has some texture in the skin and it was making a sound, more of a hissing sound than a rattling sound”. Jill said “the reason I asked is that rattle snakes are the only snakes that are poisonous in our area and our charter is to capture them. We advise people to go easy on all other varieties and not kill them. They are harmless and necessary to keep rodent population under control”.
She said “Ok, I will see if I have time after work to swing by your house”. She came while I was not home. When I returned home, I immediately rushed to the back of the house and much to my relief the snake was gone and the trash can was standing right side up. Jill texted me an hour or so later “it was a gopher snake”. I checked on the internet and gopher snakes are indeed non-poisonous and quite common in Southern California.
Snakes have been described as symbols of seductive evil women in many religions starting from the Biblical tale of Adam and Eve. The Chinese regard them as a symbol of wealth and good fortune. Perhaps Elvish Yadav was seduced and got “high” by snake venom. My encounter with snakes all happened in years (1953, 1964 and 2025) which were years of the snake or off by a year. Some say that an encounter with a snake is supposed to be some a positive message from God. I hope that the message is “be careful but enjoy life”. My life-long phobia of snakes is now almost gone. In fact, my resolution for the Chinese New Year is that if my problem with mice resurfaces, I would like to have a snake as a pet.
