The Snake Incident, WRUNG OUT A SNAKE THINKING IT WAS MY FROCK. I grew up in a semi-rural town in West Bengal, India, surrounded by trees and ponds. We had no swimming pools, so everyone learned to swim in a pond or the Ganges, often under the watchful eye of another child. A neighbor taught about ten of us kids how to swim, and we would visit the pond daily to splash around while my mom, ever paranoid about water, kept a watchful eye from the sidelines. One day, after a long swim… See more.
I grew up in a semi-rural town in West Bengal, India, surrounded by trees and ponds. We had no swimming pools, so everyone learned to swim in a pond or the Ganges, often under the watchful eye of another child. A neighbor taught about ten of us kids how to swim, and we would visit the pond daily to splash around while my mom, ever paranoid about water, kept a watchful eye from the sidelines.
One day, after a long swim and some playful splashing, we were sitting on the lowest steps of the pond with our legs in the water. I was chatting with a friend and decided to wring out the bottom of my frock. I bunched up the fabric and started wringing it out, all while my mind wandered. I noticed the fabric felt unusually velvety and thought it strange for my mom to choose such a dress for swimming. I didn’t have any velvet dresses, and my dad hated velvety fabrics. I wondered if it was my friend’s frock, but it seemed odd for her to wear velvet to a pond.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I looked down. To my horror, I realized I wasn’t wringing out a frock but a snake, its mouth open and speckled yellow. I let out a loud scream, threw the snake back into the water, and ran away in a panic.
Later, I learned from Discovery that I had been holding the snake correctly, with my hands behind its neck, and that it wasn’t poisonous. Still, it’s a fun story to share, especially since I usually avoid touching animals like dogs.
