Easily recognized by his melodious music, a snake charmer keeps on wandering from place to place for showing the feats of snakes which he puts in two baskets, hanging on the ends of a long bamboo.
The snake charmer wears a special dress-a large turban, a loose kurta and loose tehmad. He carries a gourd- flute in his hand which he plays to attract people, especially children. Generally at crowded public places he puts down his baskets, opens the lid/cover, start playing on his flute this time to activate the snakes, lying idle in the baskets on hearing the music, the snakes’ gets excited and start swaying its outspread hood this way and that way. All this the snake does at the movement of its master’s flute-music.
When the snake charmer finds him successful in collecting a large crowd, then he opens another basket after closing the previous one. This time he shows something more interesting. He shows a snake with two heads, which excites the spectators.
Some snake charmers keep a mangoose to show the spectators its fight with the snake. This is very entertaining. Sometimes the snake charmer puts a snake round his neck, and then goes from man to man showing his brave acts.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Sometimes he talks to the snakes and they seem to understand his instructions. These snakes have no fangs, as they have already been taken out by him.
When the show is over, the snake charmer goes round with a bowl in his hand. People put coins in it. Sometimes they give him flour, bread, and old clothes along with coins. He keeps all the things in his bag and then moves to other place to show the same.
The snake charmer’s life is full of adventures. Sometimes when he fails to catch the snake at right time, there comes a hundred percent possibility of his death due to snake-bite. To avoid such situation he always keeps medicine with him.
He also takes help of spiritual words, i.e. mantra. Thus, the profession of the snake charmer is very tough. Still he does not get enough so that he may support his family members comfortably. Inspite of that he does his work with full vigour.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
In this age of T.V.s, cinemas, computers, video-games etc. the snake charmer is still a great source of recreation among children. He entertains people and thus keeps them away from the worries of life for sometime. Hence, he deserves our sympathy. He should be given full support because it is he who contributes a lot in keeping the old tradition of our society alive.