SNAKES, BIRDS... AND BOOKS: A SKETCH OF RAHUL ALVARES
By Remediana 'Remy' Dias
rodrigr...@yahoo.com
What's the fate of a snake in a luxury resort in Goa? Pretty
bleak. That would have been the answer till not long back.
Then, Rahul Alvares (33) started his career working with
resorts like the Ramada, Radissons, Dona Sylvia, The Leela
and Taj Exotica.
Snake killing in these properties ceased as the staff were
successfully trained by this wildlife enthusiast in the art
of catching these reptiles using equipment specially
manufactured for the purpose -- or even imported. During the
same time, Rahul also conducted lectures on snakes for
foreign tourists staying at these resorts.
Nowadays, Rahul conducts his own bird and snake excursions
into some of the best wildlife areas of Goa. During the
off-season, Rahul is off on his own excursions around India
and abroad finding and photographing all kinds of wildlife
along the way.
For his early training, Rahul worked at the Pune
Snake Park under Neelim Kumar Khaire and later, at
the Mammallapuram Crocodile Farm, under world
renowned herpetologist Romulus Whitaker. During
this period, he also worked with the Irula tribe in
Mammallapuram (better known as Mahabalipuram, in
Kancheepuram district in Tamil Nadu, some 60 kms
south from the city of Chennai) and trained to
handle venomous snakes. He later traveled to
Thailand and Malaysia to gain experience in
handling King Cobras. Rahul has been retrieving
snakes from human habitations in north Goa (Arpora,
Calangute, Candolim, Porvorim, Panjim, etc.) for
the last fifteen years. Till date, he has
succeeded in rescuing (and releasing in the wild)
more than 1500 snakes.
During his spare time, he edits an on-line newsletter on this
work called The Creepy Times [http://bit.ly/CreepyTimes]. He
juggles his wildlife career with being a fitness instructor
and a myofascial trigger-point therapist. His other
interests include motorcycles and music. From time to time
he performs as a rock singer as well.
It's not everyday that a 16 year old writes a book.
In fact, girls and boys of that age are supposed to
spend their time studying what other people write.
It is presumed that at that age they do not
themselves have anything significant or interesting
to say. And the education system guarantees just
that. The best rewards go to those who can parrot
set answers to set questions in examination halls.
Those who try to use their imagination or reply
differently are often punished with low grades.
Rahul's first book, *Free From School*, is published by the
Other India Press and is a great inspiration for both parents
and children keen to take a break from the burden of formal,
academic studies.
Rahul Alvares did not set out to write a book. Under the
encouragement of his parents, he consciously set out to try
his hand at learning things outside the school framework and
you might say as a result *Free From School* actually came
looking for him!
After his SSC, unlike his other classmates, he opted out of
schooling to follow his instincts; fond of reptiles, he
chased them at the Pune Snake Park, and at the Crocodile Bank
at Mammallapuram. In the process he also picked up trails of
spiders, earthworms and turtles. He caught snakes in the
company of Irula tribals. He got bitten by hot-tempered
reptiles. He came out of it all grinning and wiser.
*Free From School* is his story of a year out of school, when
the learning graph of his young life went up leaps and
bounds. He wrote it to encourage other boys and girls his
age to move out of the sterile school and college environment
offered by India's antiquarian educational system, if they
wish to experience another side to life and learning. He
lost nothing but gained a lot. So did his parents. When you
read his story, so will you.
His second book, *The Call of the Snake* is a
collection of his snake rescue stories in Goa. It
also contains, in addition, critically useful
information about snakes and how you can survive a
venomous snake-bite. The simple one-syllable word
'snake' readily conjures up waves of terror in the
hearts of most people. Here's a book that will
help you change your mind -- and successfully treat
your inherited fears -- about these creatures.
*The Call of the Snake* contains consummate little
stories about snakes written by one of Goa's better
known snake handlers, while on his
