Book: SNAKES, DRUGS AND ROCK 'N' ROLL
Author: Romulus Whitaker with Janaki Lenin
Published by: HarperCollins
Price: Rs 699
Snakes, alligators, venomous necrosis and suchlike usually don’t make for delightful reading. But trust the ‘Snakeman of India’, Romulus Whitaker, to combine these elements to write a feel-good, racy, coming-of-age story. As a young boy, ‘Rom’ finds a milksnake in an American countryside barn: this marks his life-long relationship with these reptiles. He breezes through unemployment, hunger and near-death experiences and even goes on to reflect on issues such as bloody hunts, America’s lax gun control and getting stoned.
However, it is his connection to the land of snake-charmers — India, which always remained his “home” — that forms the most exciting part of Snakes, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Rom’s years in a Kodaikanal school lend a magical lens to his early years as a kid from an interracial household. The sound of handmade explosives, unusual friendships with local fishermen, taxidermy and heartbreaks get added to his great appetite for fishing and snake-hunting.
Rom has a stint as an apprentice to Bill Haast, his guru, whose Miami Serpentarium teaches him the basics of snake-keeping and venom extraction. The later years that he spends as a medic in Texas drafted during the Vietnam war, studying blood smears, scrambling for money by snake-catching, and dreaming of returning to the India that he so loves make for immersive reading.
There’s no shortage of drama though. For instance, Rom spends nearly every waking minute planning to catch and then successfully catching 500 rattlesnakes to pay for his ride back to India. Astonishingly, he also decides to stop and have coffee and think about what to do after getting bitten by a snake. But most of these episodes are a testament to the skills of a man who is willing to make the best of even the most challenging situations.
What also comes through is Rom’s fascination for people despite being an “oddball” who loved solitude. His holistic approach towards relationships with his extended family and friends hints at his future endeavour to protect not only snakes but also hunters and tribes dependent on snake-poaching.
Ultimately, the warts in Rom’s lives — a boyfriend to women who isn’t averse to two-timing and a disillusioned college student scraping for food — recede to the background, eclipsed by his passion for conserving and rearing snakes. Janaki Lenin’s concise editing of fluff does justice to Rom’s tendency to meander.
