Why Curry at the Taj Mahal? Well, I was contemplating on my walk to work today, what people think of when they hear the word India. I would say that the Taj Mahal comes to mind almost immediately; an iconic structure that is revered, and apparently justly so, as one of the most beautiful manmade monuments in the world. The other associative image might well be curry - a word, I believe, created by the British, during their occupation of India. I myself enjoy curry, and all manner of Indian food, especially from Desi Deli, a dhaba (name for a roadside restaurant) round the corner from me!
I digress. Back to the title of the blog. I, of course, think of the Taj Mahal and curry, but I also think of snakes! I have a snake phobia - have for many years - and while I have seen more than a few snakes in NY (literally) I have become obsessed about seeing them in India. All the guidebooks I have read so far (and that's quite a load) throw up the phrase "snake charmers" in seemingly every chapter of every state in India. The place is a Snake Charmer paradise. Even watching Michael Palin's "Around the World in 80 Days" in which he spends less than a week traversing India by train, the moment he sets foot in Mumbai, lo and behold a man tries to sell him a cobra. Having finagled his way out of that negotiation, Michael next stumbles across a snake charmer in the midst of a performance - this one enhanced by the presence of a mongoose. I forced myself to watch the cobra swaying for a good 5 minutes and was gearing up to watch the WWF equivalent of a mongoose/cobra 10 rounds when, thank god, the cameraman and Michael decided it was time to move on!! Side note - still more snakes appear in the episode where he arrives in Shanghai - he is taken to a local Snake restaurant. Yes if you so desire you can have Snake done to order 50 different ways - I recall that Michael and his friend ended up dining on shredded cobra!
So now I am spending exhaustive amounts of valuable leisure time in pursuit of the facts about snake charmers and India. I have a vague recollection of an article from the BBC on-line about a protest launched by the charmers - apparently the Indian government is not all that supportive of their choice of livelihood. A lovely man from our company's IT desk, by way of India, who was helping me with a serious computer issue, also was dispensing advice /information on the status of snake charmers in India- this only after I shared that I was planning to come to India but had a serious snake phobia. He told me that the government is gradually transitioning snake charmers from street performance to venom collecting. Snake venom is apparently a valuable commodity in the field of medicine! I can only hope, somewhat overly optimistically, that this government initiative goes into over-drive during the next year and that by the time, I step onto the tarmac at Delhi Airport, there will be nary a cobra in a basket!
So this is my first feeble attempt at blogging. Be gentle, kind readers, should you choose to comment. I look forward to sharing more of my thoughts and plans in the upcoming year.
