Walk to a healthy life

I have always been part of the good health movement. Yoga, meditation and the regular exercises forced upon us by the school were the first steps towards good health. I read a lot of material on health and nutrition. I have enjoyed it. I keep advising many people. I had been coaxed earlier by my Dad to go for a jog or walk in the morning. I always felt healthy then. But, suddenly I feel I am growing old. The beer phobia effect may be aging me. *Am I seeing Smitha's eyes getting red?* The real reason has been everyone grows old and there is a need to preserve the health we have. I have been observing a paunch and I decided to act. Also, Smitha who had been taking morning walks earlier has offlate stopped it completly. She says work has kept her away from her walks.
Smitha by the way is my lovely wife. :) We are approaching our 1st marriage anniversary on 24th Dec. (eve of Christmas). One year that we have been married. Time flies.
One fine Wednesday morning, I got up at 6 am and asked Smitha to start our daily morning walk routine. Out came the shoes and socks. There is a small park where a zillion dogs have made their home. Battling the initial fear of dogs, I walked with Smitha. As we approached the park, we saw the park and the road that surrounds the park filled with joggers, walkers (like us) and some wannabe badminton players. One striking feature of the badminton players is their large paunch. They play badminton as if it was a touch me not plant. We started with a good pace and a swing in the arms. We took 4 rounds of the park and one bigger round across the road where we touched another park. I came back and stopped for some stretching while Smitha continued her walk. She takes 10 and that requires stamina. I am not on the weight reduction program and hence, 3 rounds are good enough. I love stretching exercises. I have suddenly felt myself very energetic and alert. I guess the fresh air and lots of pure oxygen is keeping me in the "zone". We both want to keep it going as long as we can.

Encounter with King Cobra

I have always been fascinated by wildlife. I used to spend most of my holidays at a zoo in Dharwar. I used to go once in the morning and then again in the evening. It was near my grandparents house. Also, I watch lot of documentries on wild animals.
Myself and Smitha returned home after spending the evening outside. As we neared our building, we could see 3 people including our watchman frantically waving to park the car outside. I thought there must be something wrong. First the thought of another murder or theft crossed my mind. As I came out of the car, the watchman said there was snake that they had seen and it was resting underneath a Santro. He also said it was a cobra. I had seen cobras earlier and had also seen one killed by the watchmen at Kumarapatnam. They insisted on burning it and created a bonfire.

After watching from the gate for the snake, I decided it is time to go near and check for the snake. I went along with the watchman and with the help of his fading torch light, we searched for the cobra. There was no sign of it. The thought of the cobra springing on us from the top kept haunting me. We tried using the scooter's light to search. But alas, it wasn't there. The watchman went and switched on the lights. And in the process of our search, he moved the car covers and lo! there was our reptile. The watchman was lucky that he didn't get bitten while he went to switch on the lights. It quickly tried moving towards some stones that was used as a makeshift kitchen. Everyone were scared to see the cobra. It was black in colour and nearly 6 feet in length. I was not scared but just startled to be there. I asked the watchman to capture the snake in the gunny bag that was there. He was too scared. He clearly stated that he didn't have the guts. So much for our security guys. Will these people ever make better guards? I acted and told the other building inmates(2 of them at that moment) that we will try to capture the snake. I took two gunny bags and pulled it near the snake with the help of the long stick. The cobra sensing it hissed and rose its magnificent hood. The hissing was heard near the entrance of the gate. Cobras have the their hood to scare the enemies or predators. It moved back and hised loudly as I pulled the bag near it. After 2-3 minutes of continous hissing and waving of the hood, it struck the bag. It is my knowledge that snakes have venom for only one bite and it takes 3-4 days to get their venom back in their salivary ducts. I tried instigating the snake more to get its venom rid of it. It moved to a corner and got relatively quiet. I touched the snake with the stick. It didnt strike the stick. It was more or less tired. Then, I tried pulling another gunny bag to get the snake inside. The cobras are the intelligent among the snakes and it didn't move in to the gunny bag. I was nearly 2 feet away from the snake now. I wasn't scared of its hissing nor of its hood. I was in a trance too. May be I got mesmerised by the snake. I couldn't hear people calling me to stop it. Mr Cobra suddenly got very angry. He pulled his hood a lot higher now with loud hissing continuing. He tried moving towards the left. I moved towards the right to get the gunny bag that was lying on the floor. Suddenly, Mr Cobra changed his direction and gave a lunge. It was so quick that it almost scared us. Mr. Cobra with nowhere to go now came out in the open and sprung up its hood and waited for our next move. There was no movement from either of us. Status Quo maintained. I suddenly came back to this world and searched for Smitha. She had gone home disgusted with my heroism. I went back home leaving Mr Cobra in charge of other inmates. I knew my heroism were uncalled for and I had to be a lot more responsive. We could have called a professsional snake catcher to help us out initially. After my dinner and lot of pacifying, I went back and the other inmates had decided to let Mr Cobra to himself and allow him to sneak away. I didnt want Mr Cobra to be killed. It was a wise decision at 1 am. We returned back and today after getting up headed towards teh basement. The watchman said he had searched for the snake and it was nowhere to be seen. Mr Cobra having encountered someone for his match thought it was better to leave the place than end up in a gunny bag. (errr I wasn't going for the gunny bag heroics again :P). Anyway, Mr Cobra gave sleepless nights to some. I slept like a baby though. :D Some people were joking about the whoel incident. There were lot of laughs at the end (this morning). My intention was to get the snake out alive. And, Mr Cobra survived the human intervention. So, all's well that ends well. *hope I don't see Mr Cobra again * :)