What is the nature of memory? Especially, remembrances from our earliest childhood days? It is like a hazy sea of vagueness with most of what we think we ‘remember’ being anecdotes told and retold fondly by mothers, aunts and sisters. Fathers seem to contribute little here. In their midst, a handful of random, almost meaningless moments stand out with startling clarity and joy. For Romulus Whitaker, in a portent of things to come, one occurs when he turns over a rock and finds a shed snakeskin. He looks at it, and rather than be repulsed or mortally afraid as most of us primates would be, realises that snakes shed their skins like we take our socks off, inside out!
With his first snake in Hoosick, New York, in 1947. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Like a rolling stone
One theme that runs strongly throughout the candid and delightful first part of his autobiography, Snakes, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: My Early Years, is how unconventional his early life was. From a single parent childhood in rural America to the maniacal churn of a family in India, to the freedom he has to explore the world around him. His ability to not allow his education, first regimented and later religious, to change his inner calling. His keen exploration of the lush wilderness of the Nilgiris. The odd friends he has. The rolling stone nature of jobs he tries his hands at — everything from snake catcher and sparrow killer to the military and sailing. How a handicap, colour-blindness, turns into a strength — spotting creatures in the wild by becoming better at recognising shapes. Perhaps that explains his fascination for reptiles, creatures that are “not like us”.
Romulus Whitaker and the Yellow snake. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
We have seen in so many cases that unconventional upbringing and freedom of thought leads to remarkable lives. And yet, our world is bent on teaching and imposing homogeneity; like a batch of perfumed soap being sealed and packed on a conveyor belt. Romulus warns us explicitly too when he calls out a disciplinarian, violence prone teacher, who in later life would go on to establish a fancy school in Chennai. Makes me think, do enough children turn over rocks anymore? More importantly, do we let them?
Romulus Whitaker with Satyajit Ray. | Photo Credit: Photo courtesy: Rom Whitaker
Romulus mentions and describes his extended family, including a pair of separated and famous Indian grandparents, in detail. It is clear that he is fascinated by people and animals both, but also that those people are at arm’s length. It is the people who he sometimes does not even name that he seems to have the greatest emotional connect to. Fishermen on Juhu beach, a man who teaches him to fish, an aunt who used to carry snakes in her pocket, a friend’s parents who feeds him on weekends….
Hiking in the Nilgiris
Another passage from the book that stayed with me is about hiking in the Nilgiris with classmates. About how those hikes were about getting from one place to another in the shortest time to accumulate house points, an achievement. And how little interest anyone had in exploring one of the most biodiverse mountains on earth. His observation that plantations of imported trees were empty of life and boring. It was only later when he started hiking alone that Whitaker could explore the verdant sholas and native grasslands.
Romulus Whitaker, the founder of Snake Park and the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, watching venom extraction by an Irula community member, at the Irula Co-operative Centre attached to the Crocodile bank in Chennai. | Photo Credit: Shaju John
There is also startling honesty here of his own nature. His need to hunt; to capture and kill, and the sense of pride that came with it. The grief would come only later. How many of his adventures were plain daft and that he is lucky to have lived through them. But unlike Corbett or Anderson, he dwells on it in a matter of fact way and not as a means to build his own legend. He never says it but there is enough to suggest that he is grateful to his mother, not for just letting him be as he is but to be a moral compass as well.
Romulus Whitaker on the field. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
The cobra’s gaze
I once considered taking up a role at the crocodile bank. Life took me elsewhere but this book has allowed me a way back in some way. This is a book about Romulus, so obviously there are plenty of snakes in it. But this is not about snakes. This first volume of a rambling, rough and tumble autobiography (and not a memoir as is spelt out clearly in the introduction) attempts to find the building blocks of how he became the man he is. And for a man who has lived a life as extraordinary as him, it is only understandable that his life spills over in to more than one book! Janaki Lenin is in fine form here; her clear, matter of fact voice and humour are evident throughout. As are her skills at editing out the fluff which could have weighed this book down. I associate Romulus most with the Madras Snake Park and his work with King Cobras in Agumbe. There is plenty to look forward to in the next.
Romulus Whitaker, founder of Madras Snake Park and Crocodile Bank, in Chennai. | Photo Credit: R. Ravindran
Snakes, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: My Early Years; Romulus Whitaker with Janaki Lenin; HarperCollins; ₹699
The reviewer is an amateur birder and writer based in Chennai.
