Once upon a time, Not so very long ago!

 Nag panchmi today. Yet again remembered Aai-Papa intensely, and our childhood, too. The  Nag Panchami festival used to be special. Next to the jiwati photo frame, Aai used to draw haldi-chandan/turmeric-sandalwood cobras on a wooden board, offer flowers, and lahya/puffed jowar to the deity. We were told the Nagpanchami story, too. Yes, there used to be the special prasad of  the great puran kadabu's that was a real, absolutely yummy treat. 

In the afternoon, and this was the practice till 2006-7, the entire area would be alive with very many serpent catchers shouting, hollering "nagobala dhudh". The snake charmers would go from doorstep to doorstep. They would have a proper cobra, hissing, with the hood raised erect and the deadly stare.  Aai would offer it pooja. Of course, the snake charmer would collect the milk, pocket the money. Aai would have kept aside a heap of properly washed, neatly folded clothes to donate to him. 

Once Aai-Papa, they had both, gone to "Battis Shirale" at Sushama's mama's place, and Aai loved to tell the tales of the cobras there, though in general she did not like it if I were to watch any programme on Discovery or National Geographic that even distantly had anything to do with a snake.

Well, as one grows up, one knows perfectly well that the Nagpanchami cobra is de-fanged, may be, often in a cruel way. One knows that a snake cannot drink milk. One knows the raised hood is in self defence. One realises the ugly economy of the whole procedure of destroying nature thus.

True, and yet somewhere one wonders at the innocent charm of the day as practised in our childhood. Let us, for example, look at the practice of not cooking anything on the Nag Panchami day that would involve cutting/slicing. 

One realises that it was a very agrarian ritual as around the harvest time, while farming, there was a danger of the hoe, may be, cutting in to half a much needed serpent as rodents would otherwise eat up the shoots. To make the common man respect the "dangerous friend", the ritual emerged? 

Sure one needs to read up a lot on local deities, the relationship of such practices with the matriarchal roots of agriculture,  not to forget Engels yet again, and so on. Yet there is a part of my mind that keeps on wondering about these hapless, absolutely poor snake charmers who would at least for a day get some milk, a little money, and a few clothes. 

What must be happening to them now? How would they be surviving now? Yes, we must respect the snakes, but what about the poor human beings whose yearly livelihood depended on a day, may be? 

I get the same kind of helpless feel when i think of the circus animals. True, it is horribly cruel to treat animals the circus way. And yet there would be a bond between the animals and their human companions, be it circus artistes, trainers, circus owners. At least for their own profit, they might take some care of the animals? 

Now the animals are rescued. Great, indeed. But what happens to the circus artistes, circus owners,and their lives, not to forget the entire innocent world of the circus experience?

True, animal cruelties are horrible, must be avoided, for sure. And, yet, not so long ago, there was a care and a concern for the mysterious snake charmer, too. Where would he or his family be in our urban jungles, busy with new "mouses" terrorising us in newer ways!?! Not so long ago indeed, there was a culture of care for and welfare of the entire ambience, man and the entire environment. Now mere nostalgia!

Pratima@ Lost wor(l)ds, but not least the                           questions without many anwers,                        unlike all the Shrawan stories                            that ever ended with perfect                              solutions!