SUNDAY HERALD (Decca, India) 24 July 05 She retells tales of the wild with wit - Zai Whitaker shares her fascination with snakes and other creatures of the wild in a conversation with Jayalakshmi K.

She has lived for twenty years surrounded by strange creatures, human and animal. Having been the wife of Romulus Whitaker, India’s snake man, meant having a cobra in her kitchen, and at times a python loose in the house. Zai Whitaker says she was lucky to have been Rom’s wife, assistant snake catcher, cook and general dogsbody for a long time. Experiences rained and for Zai who nourished a desire to be a writer, the next step was to share these.

Cobra in my Kitchen is a combination of real days, some stories and a few poems thrown in for ‘quick reading’. This is by no means her first book and some chapters are borrowed from earlier books and articles. Reading the book, it is clear that this one has been written for a general audience, big and small. “Anyone with an interest in natural history should find it interesting. Of late I see more and more the child in the adult and vice versa. Hope the book is read by all,” she says.

Zai, being the daughter of bird man Zafar Futehally, had an early grounding in the ways of wilderness. Long jaunts looking for birds were frequent. “I was always interested in all animals, and amazed by the ingenuity of some small creatures… the mating dance of the scorpion, the silken door spun by spiders while burrowing in the mud. I was taught to love animals.”

The hands-on experience that came after marriage was new. Often the situations she found herself in were unnerving, but it was also fun, she adds. Did she come to love snakes in the process?

Not really, she replies, but she sure learnt to respect the serpents!

In her book she talks of the fascinating way the garden lizard prepares its nest on ground and after laying the eggs buries them with her hind leg and goes on to seal it using her head as a hammer. ‘She must have ended up with a bad headache, I am sure,’ she notes! The language is simple and witty.

The still primitive tribes of Andamans, women who suckle baby pigs in Papua New Guinea, fooling out termites using roasted magic seed, the bluff behind a cobra spreading hood and hissing, lizards that can drop tails and puzzle predators, snakes that play dead, all feature in the latest book. Here Zai retells myths, shatters some, offers interesting trivia and some useful information. You sure can know your cobra, krait, and viper and will even thank God for snakes having read Zai’s simple case for them— who wants a world overrun by rats?

There are the sad tales of sea turtles and their plunder for the pet and meat trade. A whole chapter on them in fact deals with the differences between turtles and tortoises. The chapter ‘Mari becomes an Irula’ gives a good insight into the lives of the hunter gatherers whose way of life has changed drastically. “Once snake catchers now the Wildlife Act prevents them from their natural livelihood. Now they only collect venom. So also much of the food they ate, including mangoose and lizards now are closed for them,” Zai notes. She has been working by building associations to help the Irula women become self-sufficient. They grow and market herbal cures for diabetes and hair care. The community work, among other things has helped make the Irulas 100 per cent literate.

Now, working as principal at Outreach School, Bangalore, Zai’s concern for indigenous people is evident when she talks of the need to inculcate social awareness in children and to make them appreciate such groups.

By her own admission she never became a jungle girl but started enjoying the jungle trips even if only after they were over! Eating maggots, grilled pythons and other jungle goodies was simply too much. But roasted termites were welcome!
She retells tales of the wild with wit - Zai Whitaker

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