Jaggiah.

I was watching a serial on TV about the life of a man in Karnataka ,whose waking hours revolves around catching snakes and rearing them in his house.He also prepares anti venom serum.He canvases to all people he happens to comes across not to kill snakes.His wife and two young daughters handle the snakes coolly ,like as if they are harmless little infants !These snakes have a free run of their house ,coiling on beds and sofas ,hanging from atop the fridge and bask languidly in the smells and warmth of the kitchen!

Seeing this slithering show I was suddenly reminded of Jaggiah.

The dark ,bare chested ,muscular ,young and fiery looking gardener of C.F.T.R.I.,at Mysore where my father worked as its administrative officer. [1960's]

That enclave consisting of the erstwhile Mysore Maharani's palace converted into a Central govt office and housing its employees in old and modern buildings in and around it ,had become a haven for all the snakes of Mysore.

It had a lot of shrubbery stretching in acres of rolling verdancy.And as Mysore city got concretised ,all the snakes sought sanctuary in this sole remaining patch of luxuriant greenery.It was teeming with snakes of every size and colour.They were everywhere ,crossing the roads casually, slithering inside the office and houses,swaying from trees and dangling from arched gateways !They literally held the office and the colony hostage and its employees and inhabitants had to tread warily even in broad daylight ! Less said about the nights ,the better.

The officials put their heads together and it was decided to pay the gardeners Rs 10 [a meaty sum in those days] for killing a snake .Yet few snakes were killed . They still had the run of the colony . The reason , most of the snakes were cobras which no Hindu would dare strike, for fear of incurring the wrath of gods.

It was at this juncture that Jaggiah made his entry into the colony as a newly appointed gardener.Armed with a stick he went on a vicious killing spree.Jaggiah became the henchman of my father . Whenever a snake was sighted which was often,Jaggiah was requisitioned . He jumped to the fray with great gusto ,poking into bushes , pulling the snakes by their tails and then beating the life out of them . He looked very satisfied at his handiwork as he squatted near his trophy whilst other gardeners burnt it, reverently.

Not once did he lay claim to the prize money .He very politely but firmly turned it down when my father offered the sum,saying that he owed this carnage[revenge] to the memory of his newly married wife who died within a few months of marriage , horribly frothing in the mouth and writhing in pain after being bitten by a cobra.

The snakes met their nemesis in the skillful and revengeful hands of Jaggiah. The employees of C.F.T.R.I and the staff living in the colony breathed a sigh of relief!