The Common Krait

You’ve all heard a great deal about rats, puppies, and the various other critters that, for better or for worse, greatly contribute to my daily life in Mhaswad. Last night I had a unique and rather enthralling experience with a legless creature.

I walked through my bedroom in the dark, turned my light on, and turned around to a little baby snake in my path (I was lucky I didn’t step on it). Unsure as to whether it was dead or alive, I stomped on the ground and it began to coil: an alive little baby snake!

I observed it for a few minutes, but of course had to jump over it to tell Chetna and Vijay. About five seconds later I returned with an army (10 people) to try to figure out what to do. The poor little thing was cornered, absolutely terrified and began to coil and strike carelessly and at random (not coming close to any of us- maybe it just wanted to scare us or maybe it had not idea what it was doing). The only thing Vijay and Chetna could think to do was kill it, understandable but undeniably upsetting.

At work this morning I searched the web to try to find out what kind of snake it was. It’s the spitting image of a snake I’ve never heard of before: The Common Krait, one of the most venomous snakes in India!

According to “reliable” internet sources, its venom is 15 times more potent than that of a cobra and has been reported to kill an ox (not a small animal) in 20 minutes. There is no specific anti-venom for a common krait bite.

And it’s pretty to boot!:

Its cousing, the Malayan Krait, kills half the people it bites, even with the use of anti-vemon. The question then, of course, is how aggressive it is.

Pretty cool, huh?

News

The Indian Express is my main news source in Mhaswad. It’s interesting to read about Indian politics, although difficult because to me it all seems so foreign and complicated. The international section is dominated by American news, either Obama’s new policies or something random and seemingly un-newsworthy. What’s so great about random newspapers, however, is that every once in a while they’ll publish a gem of a story introducing you to something you may not have otherwise known about. Maybe this proves my ignorance, but that’s precisely what I found in this article (republished from the LA Times) yesterday:

In California prison, play answers some difficult questions
For 23 years, Cornerstone Theater Company has aimed for dramatic immediacy by enlisting communities caught up in contemporary issues and making plays out of the stories they tell. It has performed in an Oregon cattle barn, on the roof of the deconsecrated St Vibiana’s cathedral in downtown Los Angeles and on the National Mall in Washington. But until last week, Cornerstone never had done a play behind bars.


The result, during two-plus hours at the California Institution for Women, a state prison in Corona, 45 miles southeast of Los Angeles, said something about just how immediate theatre can be.


The play — For All Time — is populated by perpetrators and victims, by a support group for ex-cons and by one for mothers of murdered children. Playwright KJ Sanchez shaped their words into rapidly shifting scenes and episodic, jump-cut stories, all aimed at getting a handle on some of the hardest questions haunting the dispensation of justice. When should those who’ve been wronged embraced mercy and forgiveness?


The playing space was a long, narrow strip, flanked on either side by the audience. About 120 inmates, a racially mixed group, sat in metal folding chairs. What, one of the ex-cons asks, is the difference between a public defender and a lawyer? “A public defender is going to get you the best deal. A lawyer is going to get you off.”


Applause greeted parts that lampooned the system for its race disparities. “Lady Liberty is blind when it comes to my kind,” actor Ramona Gonzales intoned in a poem that had been woven into the script. Its author, April Adkins, watched from a few feet away.


By intermission, Andrea Cutchon had decided to skip another obligation — a rehearsal of the prison’s Polynesian dance group — to catch the second act. “It makes you think about the things you’ve done in your life, the effect you have on people,” she said. Asked about the classic masks of comedy and tragedy tattooed on her arm, the pony-tailed young woman said that, no, they didn’t mean she was a theater buff. She’d gotten them when she was dealing drugs, and with the accompanying script, “play at your own risk,” the masks were a warning to the world: no tricks, no games, keep me smiling — or else the tragedy will be yours.


While others milled about during the break, inmate Romarilyn Baker sat quietly alone. Catharsis — that inner touching that the ancient Greeks considered the payoff of effective drama — took hold during the second act. It brought a hush to the hall, where a sign posted by the door read, “Thinking about suicide? With help comes hope! Honor your life. Talk to any staff member now.”
In a monologue delivered through tears, Marcenus “M C” Earl, himself an ex-convict who served time for a 1995 bank robbery, told of two long-separated brothers who were able to meet in a prison cell, thanks to a guard’s act of mercy.



There may have been more to the story, but that’s all that’s written online. Pretty cool, huh? Anyways, I found it really interesting. What would be wonderful, I think, is if the theater company had an opportunity to do a workshop with current prisoners to create some kind of theatrical piece. Maybe they already do that somewhere; it would certainly be worth seeing…

Eeeee!!!! 3: a puppy update

The puppies are officially two months old. Only the runt of the bunch is left; the others have been given away. The runt, still nameless, is cuter than ever. He seems happiest hiding under the couch. The list of things he is scared of is endless: small birds, sticks, his own shadow, any noise slightly out of the ordinary. It’s amazing and rewarding for me to watch him grow, develop, and explore the world. Seriously, I could spend hours watching him discover new things and navigate his way around with his extremely awkward little body.

This must be how new parents feel, and why people want babies so much!

Taking care of this little puppy reconfirms my desire to have a farm with lots of animals when I grow up :)

Look how adorable he is!!

Ghost

I have the propensity to scare children.

For a few months I was walking around Mhaswad wondering why so many kids were crying. Then, after unknowingly scaring my colleague’s niece, she explained that many children are frightened of me. Yesterday I played with one of the kids that lives on the compound; today she was screaming and crying just because I looked at her. The adults all think it’s hilarious—forcing their kids to shake my hand, telling them to look at me, pointing me out if I happen to stroll by.

I have to admit, I think it’s pretty funny too.
I guess I just look too damn different.