Keelback Lessons.....

For a minute I thought this was an unusual snake, with the face of a frog and the rest like a snake. Turns out , that my new FB friend Nivs Khemka Photography  clicked what is called a Striped Keelback Snake , in Nasik recently, possibly  in the act of devouring a frog. 

See some of the her amazing photographs here...

Reminds me of a Marathi saying " लहान तोंडी मोठा घास ...."  or (Big Bite for a small mouth...)


A relatively smaller snake, with a tail portion that is almost a quarter of its whole length, it has these distinctive stripes, and  it is normally gray or olive green in color, enabling excellent camouflage around unsuspecting victims. It has yellowish spots on the sides of the face, which tapers down to a slender neck. It has black crossbars all across its body, and they are more distinctive in the head area. This one is usually found on banks of water bodies, and sometimes even a few feet under the ground, when it decides to hibernate.  This snake specialises in eating smaller creatures like frogs and toads in a very mercenary way as is evident in this click.

 Why does all this ring a bell ?  Read on ....

 (Photo by Nivs Khemka Photography)

Power Stripes
fudging an actual color,
across the body,
a vivid color at the head,
and
the face sides
adorned
with a Gold yellow tinge,
this one slithers around,
near waters and banks,
sometimes even
going underground.

Declaring itself nonvenomous,
it moves around with a
long tail,
hunting
for ordinary frogs and toads,
croaking with happiness
at the first rains.

Big mouth
in an unbelievably small body,
it pounces
on the unsuspecting
frogs,
from behind,
devious, cruel,
allowing the frog
to sense a slow death
as it holds out its hands
in desperation,
warning
the other toads
to spread
the news.

Why does the slime,
the slithering,
the gold tinge on the face,
the deviousness in acquisition,
the demo of a greedy devouring
and the
occasional going underground,
make me feel,
that the Keelback
would make an excellent politician ?