Sitting On a Croc's Tail

Wasn't easy trying to lift my enormous bag across the platform with people snoring away to glory inches away from my feet. I could see her standing with her mother, looking out for a familiar face so i immediately waved in her direction with my free hand.
I was too excited to say anything more than a high pitched "wats up!" to which i got an equally enthusiastic "can you believe we're actually going to do this?". The place we were heading for, along with a few other (yet to be acquainted with) youngsters was the Crocodile Bank in Chennai. For most people the idea of catching crocs, weighing them and possibly even hugging them, wouldn't sound too amusing now would it? Well we aren't most people. We literally jumped at the very idea of such a possiblity. I didn't need to hear an Ok from my parents, they knew i was a crazy child long before i knew it myself.
So there we were waiting for Mr Martini,Kau and the rest of the jing bang. Took a while for them to arrive but they did eventually. I looked around me , the people who caught my eye first were these two girls , one with bright red hair with what looked like quite a painful piercing through her eyebrow and another girl half my size with nearly twice as many earrings in each ear. "So this should be interesting", i made a mental note to myself.
Well the weekend was interesting, infact it was so much more fun than i had ever expected from any non-family vacation. The croc bank was like a resort by itself, what with its own secluded chunk of the beach, so much greenary and lip smacking food!
My favorite part of the three days was when we worked with the relatively small yet VERY snappy marsh crocodiles(also called Muggers). It was a very systematic procedure we had to follow. Drag the net through the water from one end to the other, in the process trap as many of 'em muggers as you can. Then pull them out one by one, cover their eyes(makes them feel secure) and tape the mouth. If by any unfortunate chance you happen to forget this tiny step, be ready to go back home limbless. Now comes the best part. You need a minimum of 4 people per croc, so you announce which body part you want to get a hold of and on the count of three POUNCE and hold on as though your life depended on that hold. It isn't easy doing this while the croc under you swishes it's rough tail back and forth hoping for an escape.
Doing this repeatedly for nearly 20 odd crocs took pretty much the entire day, but not for a single moment did we feel tired(did i mention we were fed really well!). We had our friends from BBC running around with us trying to catch every second of this "Fantastic Experience" (as Steve would put it) on camera.
Sigh, this had to end eventually. but never will i forget that weekend with the crocodiles of Chennai, or the people with whom i had to enjoy each minute.We formed one hell of a team!
Come next May, you'l know where to find me =)