In the morning my cousin Reggie took me on his scooter to the bus
station where we saw a bus about to depart for Goa. I jumped in and
managed to get the last empty seat. The bus reached Panaji at 5 p.m.
From there I took the local bus to Mapusa. Only when the bus reached
the Mapusa bus terminus was I finally on familiar territory. I looked
around at the familiar street dogs and hawker stands and then hailed a
motorcycle taxi to take me home, which was a short distance of 3 kms.
Back home I proudly walked up to my mum who was smiling a welcome, my
brothers punching me, my dog licking me-all so far away from the world
of elephants and tiger footprints.
Chapter 6: Snakes Alive!
It took several letters and phone calls from my dad to establish
contact with Mr Neelimkumar Khaire, Director of the Snake Park in Pune
till finally the green signal was given and I was all set to visit the
place. As the arrangements were not absolutely "pucca" my dad decided
to come along with me to Pune, which is what we did on the 3rd of
October, soon after he returned from Chennai.
We left Goa by bus and arrived at Pune early the next morning. Two of
my parents' very good friends, Sujit and Vidya Patwardhan, live in
Pune. Our entire family, dad, mum, my two brothers and I, had holidayed
at their place a year earlier.
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