Living on a Farm (Part II; Survivor Gujarat)

Kantibhai

As I walk into one of the two rooms on the farm to get something from my bag, I hear a sound. I can’t see too well because it’s almost evening and I don’t know where the light switch is. Maybe it’s a rat. There’s a loud shriek…it sounds like a big rat! I see something move. “That’s not a rat – it’s a snake coiled up between the two wooden cupboards?” I yell for Kantibhai. “Snake. I think there’s a snake in here.”

Everyone comes running. Kantibhai is as cool as a cucumber. He walks right in, as I get out of the way and try to look through the window. Unfortunately, I finally get a good look. To my horror there’s a green snake at least six feet long and two inches wide wrapped around a big rat. I move back with disgust as Kantibhai, who’s also a big animal lover, gets enough courage to say, “Let’s turn the light off since he's already half done and let him relieve the poor rat of his suffering” And without skipping a beat he goes back to his chores. Nipun, Vena, Paras, and I are equally shocked. “Is it poisonous?” I ask Kantibhai. “Who knows, but it won’t harm you.”

He goes on and tells us stories about the first year he moved there. They had at least 50 scorpions and since he doesn’t believe in killing them, he would take each one out. He was bit by only one out of the 50.

As I make a mental note to cross-out ever considering moving into a farm, we all sit around on a cot with our feet up just in case the snake decides to run out of the room. Kantibhai then casually tells us that there’s a lion on the loose and he was in the village the night before last and took two dogs from the neighboring house. We confirm the story with the lady that works there just to make sure he’s not pulling our leg. And I rememeber that another lady in town was trying to tell me that earlier but I didn't understand her Gujarati.

I realized that this is a part of life in the villages and as much as I'd like it to be different, it's a part of nature.

The conversation quickly shifted from scared to humorous. If there was ever going to be a “Survivor: Gujarat,” this would have to be it. We fill Kantibhai in on American reality shows as we try to decide if we’d rather sleep outside and risk getting attacked by a lion or inside where there’s a snake on the loose. Sometimes when it gets a little scary, the best thing you can do is laugh at it. We all got the guts to go in there and get our bedding at night with Kantibhai and Nipun leading the efforts. And luckily, everyone was in one piece in the morning. Waking up to the bright sky at four in the morning to leave, I almost forgot about the events that took place the night before.