In addition to Anna and Shirke there were about 8 to 10 staff at the
park. Some of those I got to know very well included Mahesh, Milind,
Bhushan and Baba, the watchman. Many of the boys were studying at night
school and working here during the day. On Sundays and holidays there
would sometimes be extra students to lend a hand. All of them lived in
Pune and would go home for the night. However now and again some of
them would stay the night with me and we would watch T.V. or they would
tell me tales. I also wrote my daily diary every evening after dinner,
and sometimes read a bit.
My work at the park was to help the workers with their jobs for that
was the only way for me to learn about snakes. So everyday I would
clean the starback tortoise pit, the turkey pit, the chicken pits and
later on the ratsnake pit, the chequered keel back pit and the monitor
lizard pit. I also assisted with feeding the snakes, which is usually
done once a week. Most of the snakes are fed small rats-the white mice
come from the laboratory-and frogs while the python gets a chicken
every week.
I was also taught the proper way of holding and handling snakes. On
the third day, I was bitten by a wolf snake. Now you must understand
that this is a non-poisonous snake and it was deliberately allowed to
bite me for my experience and to enable me to get over the irrational
fear of snake bites that all of us have acquired as a result of
grandmother's tales being dinned into us from childhood.
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