snake in my backyard

I went to the balcony to throw some trash into my neighbour’s empty plot strictly following the urban tradition and casually looked down to see if any of the clothes that we hang on our balcony for drying had fallen down. I noticed the snake gliding slowly along the compound wall between the banana sapling and the wall, lifting itself up every now and then as if to see how tall the compound is and if it can climb it over. After looking at it for a minute I felt that I would be better off with my glasses and since the snake was not in a hurry to move ahead, went into the house hoping that the snake would be there till I return with my glasses. The snake was not in a hurry. Yes. But it did not have so much patience as to remain there waiting, while I ran to the TV table, searched for glasses, ran to the computer table, searched, ran to the book shelf, searched, remembered that I wore my glasses to sign the courier fellow’s papers at the front door, ran to the front door, found the glasses on the window next to the door, put it on my nose and returned. It had better business. So, this is what I found when I returned at last with my glasses firmly on my nose.




I expected it to have moved along the wall and focused my improved sight along the wall but there was no sign of the snake. I looked this way and that way and found it trying to climb on to the coconut sapling. Now the next madness caught me. I wanted to get a picture of my subject of observation and I ran inside to get the camera. The hunt for the camera turned out to be more challenging than the hunt for the glasses and when I returned with the camera, again there was no trace of the snake. Coconut sapling was present and I captured whatever was present. (the white stuff by the way is my effort to make it grow better).




There were some shrubs and bushes next to the coconut plant and I thought I lost the snake. But just as I was searching from my vantage point, it reappeared on top of the compound wall as if to give me another chance. I switched the camera on, turned it in the snake’s direction, thought that I had got it but got “remove the lens cover” message on the screen. By the time I removed the lens cover and focused the camera again, there was only the empty compound wall and I could see the tail disappearing into my neighbour’s jasmine bush.




From the jasmine bush it must have got underneath the pile of wooden pieces and when it emerged out of that pile, I was ready with the camera (with the lens cover removed) and managed to get it on the screen and got the first picture. If you have an eye sight better than mine, you will succeed in locating the snake between the pile of wood and my neighbor’s basement plinth. Yes, that piece of thread is the snake.




Now, I was bending precariously over my balcony railing trying to reach as near to the snake as possible and get it into my primitive camera when my wife reminded me that even my camera contains a zoom button and I need not zoom out of the balcony myself. I used the zoom just in time to get the head and half of the snake in one picture



AND half of snake and the tail in another.



At last I did get the full snake though in two pieces. I may not win a prize for backyard wild life photography but can always boast my photography skills on my posts.

Now, for some info on our resident snake. It is not intruding in my property. We have intruded in its property and it is tolerating us. It has been residing in this area since much before we thought of building our houses. I had last seen it one and a half years back and had thought that it has found some other place free from human irritation. But it seems to like our company. Nice to see it again.