Mimic Gimmick!

Blindly pulling out a yellow-ringed black-colored snake by its tail, thinking it is a Wolf snake wasn't a very clever idea after all. Now that I think of it, letting it bite me twice and vanish in the bushes without having a proper look at it was an even bigger mistake.

You see, the thinking organ of my body that evolved for who knows how many million years for only one purpose - Survival, always backs off when the hormones are in action. Hormones don't think, they're just chemicals flooding the neurons - tickling the synapses, so they stop making sensible decisions. It wasn't a voluntary spontaneous action, my Brain wants me dead - it has played such cheap tricks before as well - when it made me believe that taking a sip of industrial iodine from my biology experiment and scaring people with my purple tongue would be a cool thing to do and when it convinced me that I was capable swimming up to the deep side of the pool all by myself and throw my floating tube to the other side. 

In 21st century, you can trust no one - not even your brain. So yea, coming back... On a fine herping trail on one warm night, my friend spotted a snake resting on tree bark and exclaimed "Wolf Snake!", from a 10-meter distance from the snake. That is when my excitement hormones kicked in, they seduced my brain - took all control of my body while my brain lied on the ground like a thrashed tramp - completely useless. The sly hormones made me run to the snake, and pull it out in a jerk, without checking if it is a Krait or Wolf snake. They didn't stop there, they commanded my hands to go near its head, which resulted in two stapler pin-like teeth disfiguring my thumb tissues two times, and that is when my spinal cord thought to take charge, I yanked my hand - it had started to bleed. By that time, the snake fell into the bushes and was nowhere to be seen. My brain, still in the hangover of hormonal abuse that it had gone through, was slowly gaining conscious and that's when I was presented with the possibility of that snake being a krait - extremely venomous.

Left - Many Banded Krait  ~~~~~~   Right - Banded Wolf Snake (only for representation)

The idea terrified me. It released more hormones, this time, Fear hormones. Fear hormones are not to be underestimated they can very well take charge of thinking and believe me, they are not very good thinkers. they make you do stupid things. Shortly after the bite, I started feeling abdominal pain, one of the first symptoms that occur after a Krait Hickie, my brain wanted me to think that it is a placebo but the fear hormones opposed it, I was anxious. Very very anxious.

We were more than an hour away from the nearest medical facility, we reached our room... I told about the incident to Varad, Anna and the others, they were furious.
In hindsight, I kind of knew that it was a Wolfie and not a Krait, but the uncertainty about it in mind and the guilt of being so careless got the best of me.

You can only afford to make such mistakes once. Had it been a krait, I wouldn't be writing this post today. Stay safe guys!

Dividers UNITE!

Back in school days, we used to have really strict seating arrangements, monitors kept a constant watch on everybody to make sure nobody changed their bench partners. We all were super scared of them, Why shouldn’t we be? two monitors (one boy, one girl) were allotted by the class teacher every year, and for that purpose, the teachers did intense research on our past academic & behavioral records to choose the two most entitled ‘ass-lickers’ ever born in this world, ready to screw you at any given time. Well, so the teacher made me sit by this nerdy looking new admission guy whom I will have to bear for one year because changing places wasn’t an option and lying to the monitor about my place near to impossible.

He seemed like an okay fellow, liked to play chess, was mischievous but didn’t get caught, unlike me.

Every class used to have an assembly week twice or thrice a year, where all the students of that class would go to the assembly hall and do the prayers, pledges and so, in front of a mic that will live broadcast the show to the entire school via speakers installed on every floor. This was so boring that I would have preferred going to school on four extra Sundays than attend this... My new friend felt the same about it, we had similar opinions on a lot of things. 

So we decided to hide under the last bench while everyone left for the assembly hall, and we did. The monitor had a confused chimpanzee face when she realized that the number of people leaving for the assembly was not equal to that day’s attendance data. I pity that girl so much, she didn’t have a life. Much to our surprise, she left without doing any more checks, we high-fived and cheered for we had successfully fooled the ‘school system’. We had never thought that this plan will succeed, so evidently, we had no idea what we would do in this 15 minutes of extra free time we had earned by pure badassery! The first lecture was math, so we decided to keep our geometry boxes and notebooks out on the desks beforehand because we were absolutely jobless. All of a sudden, my crime partner picks up a divider  (fig.1), and very calmly asks, “Anuj, I wonder what this is used for, do you know?”, I say I don’t know either. By this time, the assembly had started and we could hear the pledge being narrated through the huge speakers installed. My friend then inserts the divider in one of these (fig. 2). This socket was situated very low, near the last bench, it was kind of hidden and not many students knew about its presence.

 

figure 2

figure 1

For some childish reason, I found the divider in a wall socket scene funny… We laughed. Then, we collectively decided to turn on the button, and we did. Oh, good lord, the socket pops like popcorn, the speaker bursts before making a loud ‘poofff!’ noise and the lights of the lobby go out… complete silence! There was some sunlight coming in from our class window, but the lobby outside was pitch dark, after some time we heard footsteps and indistinct shouting from the lobby. We knew we were fucked. Big time. We looked at each other, we were cold sweating. I gently turned off the disfigured button covered in some black sooty matter and removed the divider, while he cleared the smoke by waving his hands anxiously. I poured some water on my tie and wiped the black residue off the switchboard. The part of the wall surrounding the switchboard, now with sooty stains was painted by my friend with a whitener. 

We then crouched and hid under the last bench, the generator back up was switched on after some time, but the speakers never resumed. The class came back early that day, we got to hear rumors like the speakers of so and so floor caught fire and blasted, while some said that the office computers also got ruined. We decided to play along, add things to the rumors, and joke about it - but on the inside, we were damn terrified, just wanted to go home that day.

 Yep, you guessed it, it was a loooong day at school.

The next day, everything seemed normal, except, the speakers didn’t play the assembly. We knew that there was no way they will be able to trace us. The fifth lecture is interrupted by a knock on the door, I and my friend were playing cross-and-zeroes when suddenly the PT sir walks in with an electrician, they come inside glance here and there, trying to find the circuit board which was right above our bench. So my friend quickly covers the ruined electric socket with his bag, and we move out to give way to the electrician. He takes a close look at the circuit, and “sir!!” he bawls. This was it, we knew we’ll have to pay for the entire 10-12 speaker set-up to the school - I didn’t know how much it would amount to - but yea, definitely a lot more than the canteen money I had in my pocket. He says, “Sir!!, idhar toh humne fuse lagaya hi nahi thha.. Mera bag laao jara” he takes out a fuse and fits it in the slot. Then, both of them just go outside, saying they’ll return shortly but they never do. 

The speakers didn’t play anything for the next one month, and after we returned from our Diwali vacations the school had a brand new speaker set - they were mat grey, with a fancy design installed on every floor and played ‘Vande Mataram’ so well, unlike any other speakers in the world - everyone praised the new speakers and rumors had that they were imported from Germany and costed 3 times our school fees. 

I just got off a phone call with this buddy of mine, he had left school after 10th grade to pursue commerce while I stayed back for my 11th & 12th. We met after our 12th board exams, for some birding together, he’s still fun to be around with and a great birding/herping buddy.

Puff the Magic Saurian!

During my school time, I used to browse Facebook on my pc a lot. On one rainy afternoon, a post caught my attention, it was unlike anything I had ever seen…

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1526827417339427&set=a.175887062433476&type=3&theater 

“Wow!” I gasped. I opened the link, and despite the dreary structure of the research paper, I read it to its entire length not missing a single word. It blew my mind - No, not their findings. The lizard. A creature so elegant, and beautiful lived hardly 20km from the chair I was seated on, and yet it is so greatly unknown to science.

What does it eat? Not known

How does it find mates? Not known

The skink’s closest relative is found near the India-Pakistan border, and this is the only other species of Eurylepis in the world, found on the Katraj hills of Pune and one other location in Nashik. So historically speaking, how did it manage to reach here 1000+ km from its congener? I have no idea!

These questions sprouted in my mind like mustard seeds did in cotton in my upper KG class activity. These questions intrigued me, I wrote down all the essential location data from the article on a piece of paper and pinned it on my soft board. “One day, I am going to track down this skink” I determined, for I wanted to know more & more about this mysterious creature hidden from humanity, despite being so close to a metropolis.

Not long after I joined college in 2018, I, along with a few pals planned a trip to Katraj Ghat, a landscape that held such great significance in my mind. It wasn’t a very fruitful trip, I did not find the skink I was looking for, and I knew it was not going to be easy. In the following months, I managed to find every excuse I could to get lost in that landscape. Many a time, I went there all alone, at nights, during the day - the time didn’t really matter. I decided to document and record my every visit. So every time I come back, I grabbed my laptop, traced the path I hiked in google maps, and marked the date.

All paths are individually color-coded. In total - 48.14km 

I contacted people who have found this skink before, asked them for spots, scouted those spots, turned every rock but still had no luck. It was exhaustive, the terrain is unbelievably difficult, and turning rocks is a challenge because I had to keep holding onto the rock until I properly scan the creatures present beneath. Leaving the rock upturned for even a second will lead to it rolling all the way down on the highway, this has happened, it is scary, as you don’t want to be the reason for a fatal road accident. The rock trembles down the steep slope for a few seconds and you have no control over it, a basaltic rock the size of a football descending from an elevation of 1100m asl to around 400-500m asl can gain a massive amount of momentum in no time and will not shy to destroy and break open any human skull coming in its way.

I have done about 30+ visits to the landscape in the last 10months, and have not gotten a single glimpse of my dream saurian. I had thought it would be a great expedition story, and I might even get featured in the newspaper, lol. :p so I recorded my visits and interrogated people over phone calls like they do in detective shows. Still, no luck!

Just some conversations. 

My whiteboard looked like this back in August 2019. I recreated it yesterday for the picture. 

Nature doesn’t pamper you. No matter how much we convince ourselves, we are not even a tad-bit superior to any other species. Even after doing 30+ visits, this 1-foot long skink didn’t cross paths with me, it is still hiding somewhere on one of the hills feasting on whatever insects, animals it eats, and digging the earth with its powerful claws. I blame my poor herping skills, and lazy attitude for this, I might not have put all my efforts and lazed around sightseeing when I was supposed to be turning rocks. The chase definitely does not end here, this year I plan on doing more and well-organized visits with bigger groups to help with rock turning. The expedition has lost all of its charms, I visualized it to be one of those adventure stories that they show on Discovery and NatGeo, this is definitely not that fancy.

The idea of getting popular by tracking down this rare jewel has long gone from my head, I no longer fancy the popularity I will attract on social media after uploading its pictures. If one day, I ever come across this skink, I will not rush to grab my camera or video call people in excitement, perhaps, I’ll just sit by it, see it move...make eye contact. Gently pick it up, and be amazed by the inexplicable sheen on its body and by the fact that I am amongst those small number of humans that have had gotten a chance to see this marvel of evolution in their lifetime.

Some snapshots I took on good sunny days. 

Monsoons bring back life to the habitat. and me smiling.^_^ 

Decent shots of some animals we found. These are just 6 of the many
amazing creatures we came across. 

In the end, over a dozen people accompanied me during my 30+ visits, I would try not to forget anyone of you in this list - Shubhankar Deshpande, Arjun Trikannad, Mayuresh Kulkarni, Chaitanya Shukla, Aditya Kshirsagar, Gokul Nair & his friend, Ritik Agarwal & his brother, Hemang Gala, and Parichay Mukhopadhyay. Thank you!

Lots to Love About a Gecko!

All was quiet in the restaurant hall, it was around 8pm in the evening, and in spite of the rush hour, sprinting waiters, and an overcrowded atmosphere in general, people dining in the hall did not look frustrated or bothered at all. They were pretty much in their own essence.

All tables were occupied, people had their jackets resting on the backrest of their chairs for the supposedly chilly winter evening had turned out to be pretty warm and a lot less windy in this roof-top establishment. While I restlessly waited for my steak to arrive, an indistinct chirping caught my attention, I knew what it was, the real struggle was to locate it in this low-lit hall. My hands quickly reached my pocket to use the mobile flashlight, but that would grab too much attention, so I decided to randomly glance here and there hoping to hear the chirping again. A few seconds into this, I finally managed to locate the Gecko, it was an adult Hemidactylus on a wall ~15ft away from my table. It was peeking its head out from behind a photo frame. The placement of the photo frame right under a warm lamp somewhat indicated that like me, the gecko was waiting for its meal to arrive too. I wondered what insects come there, as it didn't look like a restaurant that would miss their regular pest control service.

As I dreamingly stared at the gecko, the couple sitting by the photo frame wall might have noticed me and wondered what in the world was so interesting that I couldn't look anywhere else. The discovery of a 10cm long, buffed scaly creature on the restaurant wall was followed by a loud, harsh squealing noise. The madam jumped off from her table pulled her purse in a jerk and couldn't stop wailing, the amplitude of her screech was enough to get all the heads turned and summon the manager of the restaurant in no time. The quiet atmosphere had suddenly turned into chaos and people sitting three tables away from the gecko had got off too. The manager became anxious as the pressure kept building up, more people were starting to become aware of this harmless creature lurking on the wall now. He had to do something, not taking any action meant bad reviews on the internet, less business, and eventually, getting laid off. A superhero waiter came to the rescue with a broomstick, he hesitantly handed over the stick to the manager who was kind of expecting the waiter to do the needful. The manager reluctantly reached out his hand with the broomstick on the other end and gently poked the photo frame, now what generally happens after this is that the gecko runs for its life and climbs higher on the wall, but not this fellow, it dived in the air, landed on the table freaking out each and every person in the room. The cashier watching the scene from the other corner of the hall was unprepared for this sudden change of events, he was equally scared as were the other people, despite being about 10m away from the epicenter of the chaos.

A gecko minding its own business.

The gecko took a rather swift landing on the table, thanks to its leaf-like toe pads. The amazing landing was definitely not followed by awe and applaud. Our beloved Gecko seemed to like the soft table cloth and was showing no signs of running back to the crack in the wall where it belonged. The manager and the staff, pretty convinced that they'll lose their job if they do nothing came up with a brutal solution to this petty problem. A waiter was called for with an insect-killing spray, everybody knew that the lizard shall now face capital punishment, for it did not comply with the manager, it was 'Bad table manners!". The lizard, unaware of its fate was nicely chilling on the soft table cloth as if it was its last day, indeed.

The waiter came - not running but he walked his way to the manager, very elegantly handed over the spray as if he was serving food to a VIP customer because he knew that he no longer possessed any threat from the lizard, he was far more superior than the creepy-crawly creature now that he had the poison spray in his hand. At this point, I knew I will have to interfere, I walked up to the manager, whispered in his ears, he looked away and gestured something to the waiters - all of them took a step backward. This was a green signal for me, it meant I can proceed with the "CRAZY" idea of mine which involved 100% fewer chances of any party's death than the former plan. The plan was pretty simple, I would go near the gecko, cup my palms and gently place them over the lizard's forebody, it will try to resist by trying to escape and then I would do a gentle head catch to calm the jiggling lizard. And it worked, operation "Save the Gecko" was a success. I took her out of everyone's sight and left it in the parking area of the building in which was a much safer environment for the gecko than the unfriendly people in the hall.

I went back, washed my hands, and enjoyed my steak. Oh, and did I mention the free dessert? Who knew this career field with "NO SCOPE", "NO MONEY" and "NO JOB GUARANTEE" would get me a free dessert.

Tick Bite Chronicles - Hate at first bite!!

Forests are not the places where you go to find your soul or life purpose! It is not as fancy as it sounds... Especially rainforests! I have done my bits of careless mistakes and learned lessons which I think I’ll never forget, I hope I don’t. I very strongly hope I don’t.

Until Jan 2019, my Herp outings were only limited to the few rainy months of the south-west monsoon, where the only thing to worry about was leeches. I had overcome the fear of leeches rather quickly, they were petty issues, I would just pluck them off, roll them into a ball and shoot them very very far into the thick forest bushes. Sometimes, I would willingly bait myself to the leeches, just to mess around, it was fun. Forests were fun. Until….
The dry season, Western ghats are pretty warm-inside during the Spring. So to my Amboli trip on Jan-19, I packed a lot of shorts and uhh... Sleeveless shirts! “Everyone’s going to whine in the forest about feeling boiled inside their full-length clothes while I will nicely vibe with my summer look” - is what went through my mind while stuffing clothes into that rucksack. 

I was more ready than ever, on our first day at Amboli, we did a few hours of day herping - and guess what? Everyone did whine about the heat. But I had my airy boxers on; I rolled down on to the leaf litter, climbed the crooked trees & caught Geckos, dived in the bushes - had the time of my life, while others flapped leaf fans over their faces to beat the heat. 

“You’re such a Smartass Anuj!” - I drowned in my pride. 

On the same night, I discovered a cute little creature while scratching my stomach. There he was… with his jaws deeply rooted in my flesh, I pulled it out in a jerk and it broke his mouthparts, ripping my skin off leaving behind a very unusual wound. That day I discovered a completely new level of pain, I took a deep breath and tried to recollect what just happened. Seeing the rest of the insect body clenched between my fingers, I felt sad for him...This was the last time I felt sad for this insect.

A TICK!!!

Much to my surprise, there were not one but two more ticks on my body. This time I employed a less brutal strategy, I removed them like a bee sting - very gently pulling them out, it did pain but relatively less. I was tired, and they didn’t stop occurring, there were tens of them. I couldn’t count, I couldn’t sleep - I knew I was in big big trouble.

Now I am going to explain to you the structure of a Tick's mouth - stay with me. We’ll do it with minimum scientific jargon.
A Tick is this badass insect that likes to feast on mammal blood, so when I was rolling on the forest floor - they were having a rave party on my body. Ticks, very skillfully pierce their highly modified mouthparts into our skin - their mouthpart is serrated backward which means once it is inside it gets locked up in that position, any force pulling it on the other side will only stress the skin and will eventually tear it off like what happened with me.  

distal end of mouthpart

trying to dig into the skin

“I’ll take a loonngg bath, apply HH mite, disinfect all the bite wounds once I am in Pune.” I thought. I did that. Life went back to normal - until one day when my friend pointed out that I would scratch my body all the time. So I started observing my scratching habits closely, I’d feel itchy in the stomach, armpits, legs, ankles, and crotch too… This was a terrible realization. Since then, I have tried all sorts of remedies told by all sorts of wildlife buddies; none of them have worked so far. Off late, I have come to an understanding that I will have to live with this forever.