27 July,2009 09:38 AM IST | | Vivek Sabnis
Pune wild life documentary maker to release Sarpakatha, his book of true snake stories from across the country, on Independence Day
Vilas Kane, the director of Sakshatkar, an NGO that makes wildlife documentaries, loves snakes and snake catchers so much that he has penned a collection of true stories on the subject.
His book titled Sarpakatha, the result of numerous interviews and several hours of research aimed at ferreting snake stories from the across the country, releases on August 15. "Snake stories make for fascinating reading.
There were these brothers in Pune who got into a really ugly fight after some family jewellery disappeared. A subsequent search in the attic of the house by a snake catcher led them to a majestic cobra who was resting in the darkness over the gold," said Kane.
"The jewellery had been gobbled up by some rats who were in turn devoured by the cobra who then defecated the gold," Kane added.
Another story in the book recounts the experiences of the Parmar family who returned to their house in Yerwada from a wedding in Ahmednagar to find a 5.6 feet long cobra in their air-conditioned drawing room. A snake catcher was called in. "Parmar concluded that the snake had slithered into their luggage at the wedding which took place in an open lawn and had traveled all the way to Pune," said Kane, who also has a documentary on snake deaths titled Just another death. Kane's architect friend Sagar Pawar has illustrated Sarpakatha.
