Janaki Lenin
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If you are one of those who assumes
that anyone who chooses
to share her life with Romulus
(Rom) Whitaker – herpetologist,
wildlife conservationist,
founder of the Madras Snake
Park, and the Madras Crocodile
Bank Trust, among other
projects – just has to be one of
those keen-eyed, explorer-adventurer
types, striding about
taking on Nature, you might be
a little taken aback when you
first meet Janaki Lenin. Apparently,
intrepid outdoor-divas
sometimes come in surprisingly
small, petite packages.
Janaki Lenin, whose column,
'My Husband and Other Animals',
is a regular feature in The
Hindu, recently released a compilation
of her pieces bearing
the same title.
Your first instinct is to get to
the back stories and the howsand-
whens involved here. "I
grew up right here in RA
Puram, in the Chennai of the
late 1970s-early 80s – cycling all
over a friendly neighbourhood
of independent houses with gardens,
with hedges you ambled
through when you visited – no
one bothered using front gates."
She smiles, "Now everything is
separated by compound walls
and highrises. Vertical separation?"
After school, she joined the
Film Institute at Taramani. Her
father, documentary and other
films maker, K.R. Lenin, who
had very clear ideas about what
constituted 'good cinema' ("He
firmly believed anything made
after 1945 was rubbish"), was
against the choice of profession.
Opposition, she discloses, invariably
makes her more determined
to follow that particular
path.
As it turned out, the Film
Institute was not a very pleasant
experience, with everything
being distinctly "geared towards
Kodambakkam." She did, however,
complete her course in editing,
and became a freelancer,
making corporate and advertisement
films. "I worked out of
different studios. My work went
from Lalgudi Jayaraman to films
on mixies and transformers."
After a while, she decided
that the "only way I was going
to do anything creative was by
becoming a director myself."
While scouting for subjects, she
heard of a group called SAMP,
which was doing a film on
snakes, planned to increase
awareness among people. "I
thought this was a good idea."
And, obviously, if you are
going to do a film on snakes,
whom do you meet? Rom
Whitaker.
"I was not interested in making
the usual fact-driven documentary,
but in making one
which included people's views
and reactions to snakes that run
the gamut from worship to utter
fear and revulsion."
You're about to ask her
whether this was the moment,
when she cuts you short by grinning:
"Rom 'palmed me off' to
Harry Miller."
A little later, she happened
to visit another set, where her
friend was working alongside
Rom on a film about rats. "She
told me to drop by and hang out
with her. I did, and there was
Rom."
Inevitable next question:
Was she always interested in
Nature, in everything people
normally associate with words
like 'conservationist', 'naturalist'?
"I didn't even know Nature
existed. Forests were remote. I
was city-bred through and
through. Nature for me was my
garden and backyard. I'd never
been on treks... all of it came
later, and I learnt everything
from Rom."
She did know she'd always
share him with Nature, right?
"The suspicion was there," she
grins.
Being with Rom meant, no,
not candle-lit dinners, but being
in the camps all the time.
"The first time he took me
camping, it was to Agumbe, the
wettest place possible. It was
like being flung into the deep
end of a pool. I remember thinking
'I don't want to be here'."
Did Rom ever take advantage
of her initial inexperience
with Nature?
"Absolutely. Like we'd cook
fish for lunch, and I wouldn't
have noticed anyone going to
the market. So I'd wonder
where the fish had come from,
and Rom would say that a
school of flying fish had come
winging by, and that he had
caught a few as they whizzed
past, and that's how we were
having fish for lunch. I was
naive enough to believe him. I
now justify this by saying it was
such a new world for me back
then. Doesn't happen so much
now."
Rom and she made good
partners work-wise. "We
formed a company called Draco
Films. It was then that I began
to put in hours of research. You
have to get all your facts meticulously
right before you can
pitch your ideas to anyone, typically
TV channels like National
Geographic and Discovery. There
is a very rigorous vetting process,
with a team of fact-checkers."
While this helped build her
knowledge base, Rom was, of
course, her in-house 'ready
reckoner'. "He even knew more
than what had been published."
She is now no longer making
films, she writes her column and
works on other writing projects.
You are puzzled by the ease
of the transition, though. How
can a self-confessed, city-bred
girl step out of comfort zone so
quickly?
A liberal, non-traditional
upbringing, perhaps?
"Yes, you could say that. I
didn't grow up with too many
dos and don'ts. That's probably
why I found easy to adapt to a
totally different life. But aren't
all women like that?" she suddenly
asks.
Yes, but this is a bit different,
right?
For one thing, most women
don't have 'in-laws' so heavily
endowed with teeth, fur, claws
and poison sacs... (I saw that
look. Dear Reader, and I know
what you are thinking!).
"My father made us think for
ourselves. If I had questions,
he'd say: 'Look it up'. Nobody
taught me to judge anything as
wrong. "I have no 'icky' quotient."
So, yes, city girls can
learn to share eesal rice with the
Irula... much to the latter's
amusement.
The Whitakers live on a
farm 10 km from Chengalpattu,
in the midst of scattered hamlets.
"My life is a bit like a nature
science class…but we do
have other interests, like reading
and music. I read everything
I can get. Rom listens to rock 'n
roll; I listen to Carnatic and
Hindustani. We try to come to
Chennai during the music season.
Now, after more than
twenty years, I am a visitor to
the city. The drive back tends
to neutralise any fun element –
it really has to be worth our
while to make that trip. I'd love
to be able to teleport into the
city."
What do Rom and Janaki do
for 'ordinary' fun? "Oh, that's
hard to answer. We have our
own definition of 'fun'. Friends?
We do have some close friends,
but we are both very asocial
peope... it's easier to talk to a
snake," she laughs.
Does she ever get scared for
Rom? Her book speaks of times
when things have got dangerous.
"Yes, all the time. I trust he
will be careful, and am thankful
when he gets home safe. What
else can I do?"
Janaki's domestic issues are a
little different from merely running
out of veggies and milk,
you imagine. "Well, we have
staff who are used to our lives.
Otherwise, yes, it is a problem.
Forget urbanities, even people
from around the area can't
handle our lives, or working in
our home. They come, see our
place, and flee within a month!
They say it's a jungle!"
Yes, this particular 'Amma
and Aiyya' are a bit different,
given that, over the years, their
ideas of domestic pets are just
that little but unusual. Janaki
admits that kitchen utensils
sometimes share space with
garlic... and tree frogs. In her
book, she has an exact count of
the number of tree frogs she had
to once coax out of the house –
289.
Janaki calls herself 'a dyed-in-
the-wool city slicker', but
adds that "saying 'yes' to every
opportunity was like opening a
door to a possibility – adventure."
There is after all "plenty
of time later to wallow in your
comfort zone..." So, grab every
new experience, is her approach.
You hear her anguish when
her "45-kg gorgeous German
Shepherd, Karadi" died in 2006,
mauled by a leopard. Given that
there is a very violent side to
Nature, does Rom's unique outlook
make him accepting of
Nature's ways?
"Yes, Rom has no issue with
death; a nature lover's emotional
perspective is different. I
was far more emotionally invested
initially."
The book gives you loads of
information in tantalising
bitezone (no pun intended)
portions. Like, did you know
that a crocodile is easier to
handle than a King Cobra, and
is as easy to train as a dog? Pintu
(a mind-boggling cute name for
what most people would consider
a scary creature) learnt by
merely watching others being
trained, while 'Ally', 'whose
brain is the size of a walnut,' is a
star pupil.
You hope you never find
yourself attempting to outrun a
slightly irritable elephant, but if
you should, "never run in a
straight line". You learn of the
truly scary 'toxo', the rat-cat
parasite that messes with human
brains; that some people
believe 'beating and scolding'
trees can make them grow; and
that snakes are "supremely
civilised creatures", with a very
clear idea of territory.
Janaki obviously has an intensely
curious mind, so the
book is also liberally sprinkled
with some non-animal-oriented
facts, like the origin of words
like 'seersucker',
'mithridatization', and even
'sambhar'.
(Certainly not – go buy the
book and look it up. As well all
she has to say about the world
of Nature.)
Fun with the 'Dude'
There are a host of fun facts that surround Rom Whitaker.
The 'dude' or 'my man', as she sometimes calls him, has
had quite a Life – with a capital 'L'. He is a colour-blind, a fact
he dismisses with a laugh, but is able to find brown and green
snakes with greater speed than most people. Janaki explains:
"He trusts shapes, not colours."
He is able to trace his ancestry back to 839 A.D, with
'Whitaker' apparently derived from 'de Quitacre'. Rom, nicknamed
'Breezy' by his family, is also a 'cuss word expert' apparently,
and in 'several languages', including Pashto. (You can't
help thinking that given the unpredictable nature of his
favourite creatures, the opportunities to brush up that particular
skill must be infinite.)
New York-born Rom has "always felt Indian" and, years ago,
traded in his American citizenship for an Indian passport.
Rom's stepfather is Rama Chattopadhyaya, so that makes
Kamaladevi, his step-grandmother, and Harindranath his 'Grandaddy'
– who rescued the child Rom from a rather miserable
school experience, and also once wrote a lovely poem 'For Gale
and Breezy', describing Rom as a scamp, who is so full of life
that he is lit from inside, it would seem, 'without the help of
long, electric wires!'.
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