Book Review – 'My Husband and Other Animals' by Janaki Lenin

My Husband And Other Animals

Author: Janaki Lenin 
 

Genre:  Non-fiction

Imprint Westland
Format Paperback
Extent 296pp
Pub date Sept-12
Rs 250
ISBN 9789381626726

Reviewed by Gopinath Mavinkurve  (Twitter Id: @gopinathmm)

A nature lover would certainly love to read this non-fiction book by Janaki Lenin, a compilation of the columns published by The Hindu, now brought out in the form of a book titled “My Husband and Other Animals” published by Westland.  Janaki Lenin presents to the readers several episodes of her life lived entirely out of her choice – to be with animals in their habitat, the jungle!   For a 5-year old who wished to have a pig as her pet, marrying a herpetologist of international repute and wild life conservationist, would be the ultimate gift of her life. One that she cherished for a lifetime, as Rom Whitaker, the founder of Madras Snake Park and Madras Crocodile Bank offers Janaki  an adventurous life in the deepest forests of India and several other countries, as the couple go “snake-hunting” (they catch ‘em – not kill ‘em).  As Janaki explains, there is no way one can watch snakes to study them – they need to be caught just as to be able to tell their species!

Opting for a home in rural Tamil Nadu to live with four dogs, a pair of emus, a flock of geese and a pig, would surely come with several pesky tree frogs, ants, weevils, porcupines, shrews thrown in good measure! But Janaki isn’t complaining! In fact, she tell us how nature can be best understood in their midst, rather than in the concrete jungles of the cities that most of us consider ‘safe’.  So instead of eavesdropping on jealous neighbours of an apartment complex, you will be treated to the insights of the private lives of snakes and crocodiles.  

Rom Whitaker, who single-handedly set up the Madras Snake Park and Madras Crocodile Bank, has several stories to share about the challenges in setting them up, but that is not all – several stories of his encounters with the King Cobra and how he survived several snake bites, while seeking out new species of snakes and how the early days  of snake hunting with the Irula tribals for the Haffkine Institute for developing the snake venom anti-dote and the perils of living in a jungle as they find their dog falling prey to a leopard and several such experiences – both the pleasures and perils of living in the jungle!

Did you know that Crocodiles can be trained like dogs?  One of them learnt upto 12 commands!  Can you tell a Russel Viper from an Asian Pit Viper?  Or that monkeys are the most dreaded animals if you had been making a living on farming?   You will find hundreds of such gems of truths revealed in this book narrated in a matter-of-fact manner – no ‘save-our-animals’ pitch or ‘down-with-civilisation’ rants in these stories – just pure predators and preys and how they switch roles for the larger good of nature’s ways to keep our planet going as it always did!

Do read this amazing collection of columns from which one can learn a lot about life in a jungle – the closest you can get to Mother Nature.  I loved reading this book immensely!  

Thanks, Westland for gifting this book to me – that too, just for asking some questions in a Westland Chat event on Twitter!

Follow me on Twitter @gopinathmm  Do look out for Westland Chats with Twitter Hashtag  #Westlandchat (and for amazing gifts offers! :)

Rating 5/5                                               

BMC's Heartless Apathy!

When I read this Cover story report featured in the Mumbai Mirror on Monday 25^th March 2013, I was shocked at the heartless apathy of the municipal body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), that runs KEM hospital.  Municipal and Government run hospitals are institutions to which the masses turn to for “affordable” healthcare services.   The inverted commas that I have used when I keyed in the word “affordable” can be understood better when you read the report – of some who had to sell their jewellery to raise the amount of Rs. 60000/- to pay as deposit to have their child logged into a long queue for an open heart surgery!  Read the complete report here

My blood boiled as I read THIS:

 “In the two years since it applied for the tender, Sorin had moved on to making more advanced machines. Production of the older, less sophisticated, machine that the BMC had ordered had been suspended. Sorin was willing to give the latest machine without charging a penny more. But the stubborn mandarins of BMC would have none of it.”

What would you call this decision of BMC?  To refuse a more sophisticated machine at the price of the older version?  Stupidity or Foolhardiness?  Or any of the synonyms that one gets when you right-click on these words?  Or would we need a new word for this?  I am at a loss to understand this stance of the hospital, although I am sure they would have a reason for such stupidity, one never knows!  BMC ought to explain this to us laypersons who don’t understand their wisdom in refusing a more sophisticated equipment when they could darn well have surgically treated the hundreds of children in the waitlist for their heart condition and saved precious lives! Over to you, BMC, do tell us, you owe us an explanation!

Ms. Lata Mishra of the Mumbai Mirror needs to be lauded for her commendable report, which brought to fore the malaise afflicting the administrative functionaries of the civic hospital in the “Maximum City”, namely, “Maximum red tape”.  A killer malaise, as it proved to be.  Kudos to her and the publication!  But what beats me is how come such an acute problem was not highlighted at all and went unnoticed?  Have we become a society that does not sense the pain of masses that continued to bear it all as silent sufferers?  I understand there are millions of NGOs registered in our country.  Atleast a few hundred must be health-related NGOs?  What were the regional political parties that contest municipal elections doing all these while? One is truly baffled at the heights – or is it depths of public apathy!

The report did shake several folks into action - The High Court, for instance demanded the BMC for an explanation.  Dr. Devi Shetty the eminent cardiologist with a heart came forth with a plan to operate on the children at his Narayana Hrudayala,  a well-equipped paediatric cardiac surgery facility  at Bengaluru – at no extra cost!  Read this report here.

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/15/2013032620130326053113465f06facf/Ray-0f-hope.html

I am sure more Cardiologists in Mumbai and other parts of the country and NGOs will soon press into action - rise to the occasion to help to save the lives of the poor children in the waitlist, the future citizens of our country!  I shudder to think if there are more such waitlists elsewhere in our country, that have yet to be uncovered by the media and wonder what would’ve been the fate of these unfortunate angels registered in KEM hospital, had the facts not been reported by them!

I do hope all agencies come together and put a date by which they are committed to clear up this waitlist at once!  I am sure the funds and resources will come by if there is a coordinated effort and the determination to tackle this problem right away.