STAR OF MYSORE (India) 13 December 08 Satyan, The Myth Buster {Excerpts}
In the early 1950s, when Satyan told his father that he wanted to take photography as his profession, his father, though appreciative of his son’s talent, was unwilling to accept that one could actually making a living being a photographer.
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Unperturbed by this wrong diagnosis, Satyan went on to pursue his first love — Photography and showed that he had a creative and an artistic bent of mind.
On another occasion when T. S. Satyan became a myth buster, came in the early 1970s when he and his wife Ratna visited Malaysia.
Satyan and his wife Ratna were visiting Malaysia as the guests of the government and when their guide asked them what they want to see first, the couple requested that they wanted to visit the world-famous Sungei Klaung Snake temple. Famously known as just ‘Snake Temple.’
The legend was that the snakes in this temple were as non-violent as the Buddha himself and they had never ever harmed anyone. Satyan, recalling the incident says: “When we arrived there, a hawker of souvenirs with a pair of snakes draped around his neck greeted us saying, ‘ No fear, Sir and Madam. All snakes friendly, friendly here. Never bite anyone so far.’ And as if to prove his words he showed us several photographs of a smiling Queen Farah of Egypt with a pair of snakes around her neck. Whatever fear lurked in our hearts until then vanished.
“The ambience inside the temple was perfect for pictures. Pilgrims were lighting incense sticks in front of the snake-covered deities.
“My camera went into action like a Sten gun. Engrossed in my work, I wasn’t aware that I was inching towards danger. Suddenly I felt a sharp, painful sting on my right ankle! I screamed! A snake had bitten me. Immediately I was rushed to a general hospital close by.
“Soon I noticed a small crowd of people at the entrance of the hospital. They had heard of the temple incident over the radio. Press correspondents and photographers were anxiously waiting to ‘cover’ me. Flashlights popped. Cameras clicked....Next morning’s newspapers, all over South-east Asia, had my story with pictures. Barnama, the Malaysian news agency, had flashed my encounter with snakes to papers around the globe. They said that I was the first person to have shattered the ancient snake myth in Malaysia.”
Satyan, The Myth Buster