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Rendezvous with reptiles
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Children seemed at ease handling pythons, tortoises and alligators at NatureQuest's anniversary fete
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TELL YOUNG Maithrayee that you are scared of touching a python and she is beside herself with disbelief. She stands there, all of three-an-half years, shaking her head. "Don't be afraid. They will not harm you. They are your friends," she says, pointing to the reptiles that are slithering and crawling around the Bookpoint auditorium.
Maithrayee is one of the many children who have come to spend an evening with these reptiles as part of NatureQuest's anniversary celebrations. As the NatureQuest volunteers lift their "friends" gently out of their cases, the children's eyes go wide with wonder.
While a photographer shies away from a reptile, telling you that touching one is as dangerous as sticking a hand in a tiger's cage, you cannot but admire the little ones who handle alligators, crocodiles and pythons as if they were the latest toys from Leo.
Sayan Siddhadar, a Standard IV student from Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School, is examining a Travancore tortoise closely. "I like tortoises, but they are no patch on crocs," he says, matter-of-factly.
Meanwhile, Maithrayee demonstrates how fearless she is by posing with a rock python, her eyes shut, a smile on her lips. You catch up with her, and you learn that she has unusual brothers as well, not just unusual friends.
"I have a brother called Rambo," she lisps. Shruti, who is her neighbour, asks you to ignore her. "Rambo is her dog."
"No, he is my brother," insists Maithrayee.
Then, from reptiles we move on to something larger - elephants. Raman Sukumar, who has been studying elephants for 25 years, takes you through his work with a power-point show.
When Sukumar was in his teens, an interest in natural history took hold of him. He knew what he was letting himself in for. "In the 1970s, if you told people that you were going to study Nature, they looked at you strangely. I started by studying the deer and black buck at the Guindy National Park and then moved on to elephants."
For the next 45 minutes, he takes you through a journey that brings into view friendly, aggressive, why, even drunken elephants.
PRINCE FREDERICK
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