A City-Bred Cobra

First of July 2017 will remain etched in my memory for many years to come.

It was on this day that I witnessed a black cobra striking a pose for the shutterbugs, just like Aishwarya Rai on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival (see pic below). If this doesn’t surprise you, here’s something more. The cobra arrived at our car workshop in great style, like a VIP,  in a BMW car!

The car’s owner (see pic above, the man wearing a pink shirt) pointed to the car and said, “I saw the snake entering from the bottom, near the axle. Please get it removed.”

In spite of the gravity of the situation, he didn’t sound too perturbed and he seemed to have complete confidence in our capabilities.

My team and I were, however, very much taken aback as we had never handled this kind of a problem before. We were, in fact, already quite frazzled. Our systems were paralyzed as implementation of GST, the new single tax structure,  the so-called ‘Good and Simple Tax,’ was in progress. Our staff members were malingering around as work had ground to a halt.

The matter was immediately escalated to top management as the After Sales Manager had left his job a month ago. Their advice was, “Let the Head Technician handle this.”

It was in the middle of this chaos that the car was quickly transferred from the flat bed truck to a car lift. It was obvious that something had to be done fast before the cobra leaped out of the car and slithered into our premises.

Once the car was hoisted for inspection, our Head Technician flashed his torch into the underbody. The cobra reacted very strongly to this by raising its head menacingly through the axle, keeping its tail stubbornly coiled around the shock absorber. The Technician stepped back with a start and exclaimed, “Yes, it’s there.” A lot of employees who had been watching the proceedings earlier with great amusement hastily retreated into the safe confines of the closed office doors. The Technician also gave up and came inside.

Being a Customer Relations Manager, I had to get this sorted out soon. So I walked up to the Technician and suggested that we call in the wild life guys. After a frantic Google search and desperate telephone calls, we managed to contact the right people. They said they will reach in another 40 minutes, so we need to remain at a safe distance and watch out just in case it crawls away. They kept their promise. They were poised and confident and as you can see from the photos, even the cobra seemed to be quite awe-struck by their personalities. In just 30 minutes, they managed to draw the snake into a red bag, but not without letting us click lots of pics while it stood with its head held upright, proud and dignified, every bit a naag devta (Serpent God).

I hope this cobra is well and safe. Because of fast urbanization, a lot of snakes are being thrown out of their homes. Homeless and starved, they crawl around and find themselves in precarious situations like the one I have described here.

Copyright: Jasbir Chatterjee