My family lived in Madras (as it was then known) from when I was 4 to when I went to boarding school in Blighty (England) aged 9. We had a wonderful red brick house with a large well tamed garden, except for a rather jungly area around the back.
One day, we children were jumping on and off a rolled up carpet in the porch when a scorpion fell out of it.
Whether this incident triggered Mum’s desire to get a snake charmer or whether it was the growing jungle behind the house or indeed that the idea had a certain charm and interest to it, is anyone’s guess.
The appointed day arrived and the snake charmer, with turban, basket, pungi (flute) and snake sack, was sent round to the back of the house to work his magic. Apparently snakes can sense sounds but not actually hear music so it's quite difficult to imagine then how the snake charmer managed to capture 13 snakes from various drain pipes around the house. Worryingly, including a mother and six baby kraits which are highly venomous and dangerous creatures and cause the majority of snake-bite deaths in India.
Needless to say, Mum was delighted with his work though no one will ever know if he brought the snakes with him or how many he actually caught as no one dared go near him.
However, as insurance policies go, it wasn’t a bad one.
