One morning, in 1947, a group of boys in a village in New York planned to go fishing. As they rolled over rocks to look for earthworms to use as bait, one of them spotted a snake. Moments later, the band gathered to kill it, barring one. Instead, he decided to take the dead reptile home to his mother. “It’s a harmless garter snake,” she said. “I didn’t kill it, Mummy. The other kids did,” he said. “Promise me you won’t kill a snake,” she said. The boy was Romulus Whitaker, and this is where his story of becoming a renowned herpetologist began.
‘I really did (keep the promise). Perhaps this was when I became fixated on reptiles and vowed to be their champion,” writes Whitaker as he recalls the incident in his highly readable memoir, Snakes, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll.
The book covers a lot. There’s the background to his Indian citizenship—how his mother, Doris, met his step-father—then a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—at her sister’s NYC house, and eventually fell in love; and their subsequent move to India, where Romulus went to Highclerc School (now known as Kodaikanal International School). It was in this school that he adopted a python as a pet.
He writes about his year-long efforts to crack college, before taking up a job at the Miami Serpentarium, where he truly came into his own. It was here, mentored by the legendary snakeman Bill Haast, that Whitaker learnt how to extract venom from snakes. There are also stories about him trying out many drugs, his love affairs; as well as his time working as a seaman and a lab technician for the American Army during the Vietnam War.
Besides chronicling the sheer roller-coaster of a ride that his life has been, the biography allows the reader a peek into his persona—he is kind yet experimental, shaped equally by his heartbreaks and successes. About the death of his close snake-catcher friend Schubert Lee, who died by letting a black cobra bite him, Whitaker writes, “A helpless, unfathomable feeling of nothingness covered me like a suffocating blanket. It took Schubert’s tough body 48 hours to succumb. He died the day before I turned 21.”
At the beginning of the book, there are 16 endorsements. They include author Anita Nair, politician and environmentalist Jairam Ramesh, theatre personality Sanjna Kapoor, journalist Carl Hiassen and, perhaps, for the first time in a book, Bollywood legend Zeenat Aman. She writes: “Rom Whitaker upends the sombre hunter-turned-conservationist trope with a memoir brimming with animals, adventure, humour, and self-reflection. This is one wild trip.” Indeed, it is.
Snakes, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll
By: Romulus Whitaker
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 400
Price: Rs 699
‘Snakes are Magical’
Romulus Whitaker speaks to Shevlin Sebastien about what made him write his memoir, the human fear of snakes, and how a 12-foot anaconda almost crushed him to death
What made you pen your memoir?
I have been telling stories of my encounters with snakes for years. People always said, “Write it down.” I finally did.
How did you manage to recall your memories with such accuracy?
I had friends and relatives who remembered a lot of things, of which I had only vague memories. I depended a lot also on my siblings, Gail, Nina and Neelakantan.
People have been terrified of snakes from time immemorial. What are the reasons for that?
Some species of snakes such as rattlesnake, cobra or viper are dangerous. Primatologists have said that the eyesight and brain power of primates have developed so they can avoid having unpleasant experiences with creatures like snakes. In Christianity, snakes have been called evil. Whereas, in Hindu mythology, people worship and revere them. It is a strange dichotomy around the world. The main reason is that snakes seem like creatures from outer space. They don’t hearor walk on legs. They seem to be magical, which engenders both fear and fascination in people.
You have dealt with numerous types of snakes. Does it have a basic character?
Snakes are nervous animals. They look at human beings as enormous giants moving around. We have to admit man is the most dangerous animal. So snakes are continually trying to get away from us. They live in great fear of us.
You mentioned that those who deal with snakes have fingers which are deformed by bites. Tell us more.
A snake often bites on the fingers. This creates muscle, tendon and tissue damage. The fingers tighten up, become deformed. Sometimes, they may have to be amputated.
I had a friend who had several deformed fingers. So, when you shook his hand, it was not a pleasant feeling.
One of the most astonishing moments in the book is when you describe how you opened a crate in Miami that contained an anaconda from Bolivia. Apart from biting you, it enveloped your body. How did it not crush you to death?
The snake was 12-feet long. My friends were standing there and laughing at me and did not help me. One reason was because it had not encircled my neck. This anaconda, a female, was frightened. It wanted to hold on to something tight. I was the tree it wanted to hold on to. It was not trying to kill me. If it wanted to, it would have encircled my neck. An anaconda or a python can tighten up your chest muscles so that you cannot breathe. But if it squeezes your neck, you will become unconscious. And then you can die.
How many snake catchers do you know who have died?
In the early days, very few. But in recent times, especially in India, there have been many. That’s because they foolishly caught a snake in a way they should not have. The most important thing is to keep the ego under check and not show off. Nowadays, everybody wants to be a hero and put up reels on social media. And they pay for it with their lives.