The opening scene shows a reasonably happy school boy, curious about life (it is essential that the child must not be shown as a school hater). But the boy’s attitude to his life must be shown as a little frustrated. He wants to do things but school holds him back. -My interest was snakes, it could be any interesting thing as well, though I feel snakes to be a good subject because it is quite unorthodox in a way-.

The parents feelings: one of the parents could be shown as carefree, the other more limited by social norms.-my father didn’t bother too much-. Though the decision taken by the parents should be shown to be a firm one. The boy himself is too excited, to worry about what his peers would say or the college he is missing.

The parents give him some guidance in the beginning. How to travel in his locality, how to pay bills etc. writing of a daily diary is very important, not only to document daily activities, but also to make the boy feel that he is doing something every day. If he writes nothing in the diary he realises that he may be doing nothing, this helps him plan schedules.

-my first experience was working at a fish shop. I loved aquarium fish. For someone else it could be something else like carpentry, or computers, electronics, anything. – the experience the boy gets is one of being an apprentice. He realises how to deal with customers, to do odd jobs, to avoid being careless, to doing jobs he doesn’t like with as much gusto as the one’s he is fond of, gaining confidence of the boss, adjusting to his employers moods etc. Mistakes made should be shown. -like my biggest problem was that I was too much in love with fish. My whole attitude was very personal. I wanted my boss to order specific fish because I liked them. Other mistakes were like fixing a tank in the wrong way, or losing money etc-.

-Two other things that I did before I left Goa was attending plant festivals and attending a course on mushrooms. I was the youngest participant in both these activities. – the scene could show parents giving suggestions that the boy attend some of these events. The boy is sceptical in the beginning, but enjoys it later on. He loves the company of adults as well. He adjusts fast. By now he is also able to write reports ensuring that the whole occasion is not finally forgotten like a dream.

-Trip out of goa; this really kick starts the sabbatical. I took a trip to Kerela, the main highlights being the Waynad wildlife sanctuary. I travelled with my father. The best part about the trip was the walks I took in the sanctuary. Again I got along quite well even with my dad’s collegues and friends, the return trip was where I travelled back to Goa on my own-.

The scene can show a boy who is quite nervous about travelling alone but at the same time is determined to make it on his own. He checks and rechecks his tickets, timings of trains etc and manages to make it safely back home.

-My next trip was to the Pune snake park. The first day I remember I didn’t manage to get my bus home. I phoned up the place I was staying and found out an alternate route instead. It was two three hours of standing in the rain, soaking wet  when I arrived at my dad’s friends house after dark. The important thing is that I somehow managed-.

These scenes of travel can be shown as tricky and trouble some. But it is important that the boy be shown as some one who has an aim or a target, and will not accept defeat.

- Pune snake park and madras croc bank is where I wanted to be. That was the reason I wanted the break. For the first few days, I didn’t get to handle any snakes. I was asked to do some odd jobs like cleaning cages, etc. These were not exactly the things on my list, but I bid my time, and I knew that as they gained confidence in my work I would be allowed to handle snakes. I would tail the snake catchers where ever they went, and I didn’t care how irritating this might have been to them because by hook or by crook I wanted to learn how to handle snakes. If I had waited like a school kid till some one called me, or asked me if I wanted to learn something, I would have learnt nothing.

I was ragged by some of the snake handlers over there, but I decided not to complain about it.  At the end of two weeks I even managed to handle a cobra. I had to live alone, and many at times the snake catchers would try to scare me at nights by pretending to be ghosts. I lived at the snake park with the watch man and I ate at a local dhaba( this gave me bad motions for two days).  All this I say not to draw sympathies but instead to show that I went through the whole thing with a laugh. I even enjoyed it at that time, and with every day passing I was growing more mature-.

This feel of fighting to learn should be depicted.

- Next I travelled to Bombay. Again I had to find my way to my cousin’s house alone. From there I went to Jaipur with my parents. My next trip alone started from Bombay and ended at Madras.

For the first fifteen days I had spent my time at a college where Dr. Sultan Ismail was researching on earthworms. I made a lot of friends. Most of his research students were only a little older than me and I got on quite well with them. My work included both practical and theory. Travelling in the bus was the scariest thing though. I didn’t know that in buses in Madras one had to go to the conductor and ask him for a ticket, consequently when the ticket inspectors arrived I was interrogated in Tamil and fined when I could not come up with any sensible excuse to speak of. By the time I got out of the bus I noticed I had been pickpocketed as well, the purse was empty of all money though. From then onwards I learnt how to handle travelling on my own. Many at times I would get lost, but I never phoned for help, and asking around I managed to find my way back. In this same manner I finished my stint at dr. Vijayalakshmi’s house. Here I was learning about giant crab spiders and how they control cockroaches.  At all these places people were very friendly.

The twist started when I went to the crocodile bank. Gerry Martin, Tharak ( Harry’s son) and Sameer( Rom’s son) had a ball ragging me. The high lights were the haircut they gave me for which reason I had to shave my head. Though I must agree that I was quite a pest as well, I would follow them wherever they went, Gerry especially because he had promised to teach me how to handle poisonous snakes. In the end he didn’t show me anything so I had to learn from Sampath the Irula. I can’t believe that I managed considering that he only spoke Tamil, and so we both had to make do with sign language. I spent the best part of my sabbatical there- helping with the shifting of crocodiles from one enclosure to another, learning handling of poisonous snake handling, hunting with the Irulas for rats and snakes, swimming on the beach behind and eating barbecues consisting of rats and crocodile scrambled eggs. I also spent a lot of time at the library.

From there I travelled to Pondicherry because I had heard of an ashram that taught one how to improve one’s eyesight through simple exercises. I stayed at Bernad’s (one of my dad’s friends from Belgium) house in Auroville and cycled about 44 kms every day to go to the school and back.

Though I was quite careful by now, I still got swindled quite a few times with coolies and rickshaw drivers. While returning home I spent some time in Bangalore, where Bing, one of my dad’s friends chalked out a schedule for me, to meet many people such as conservators of forest’s, environmentalists etc. the best part though was putting me in touch with the Times of India who allowed me to take classes with school children from Bangalore. I took lectures at different schools, from class eight to class ten, the students were always excited because I carried my pet turtle along with me. At the end of the class I would allow them to touch it.

I guess I matured quite a lot, during the whole trip. Travelling around India became peanuts for me. When I joined back college I was far ahead of my fellow classmates.

-That is what would be very important to show in the movie, the whole process of the student growing up and being able to travel, live and learn on his own. The drive especially is very important. Some people I have known have taken sabbaticals like me but have squandered them, or done things that were career oriented. The break, the way I look at it, is not to improve one’s prospects for a job (that is the added advantage you may get) but it is to do the things you really like to do, that you may not manage to do as you get older and busier. When I started snake handling I never for once thought that it should help me earn a living!

When I came back to Goa, I also did ploughing. I was helping my neighbour guru one day with some mason work, and he seemed quite impressed that I was willing to work as his apprentice, since many young people feel embarrassed to carry out jobs like these. So he offered to teach me ploughing as well. He owns a pair of bullocks, and during the monsoon he takes contracts to plough fields all over the village. To go into the details of this would be too much, but what I can say is that I loved it, especially when it rained. The cool rain would beat down my sweat soaked back, everyone else would be hiding from he rain. Though the job looked easy, in reality it took me more time to learn ploughing than to learn diving! And at the end of 2 months instead of paying me, guru gave me a full sack of rice!

A lot of the village people would watch me, it must have been a strange sight considering I wore a small ponytail on my head. They would always comment ‘ it is good to see that you are not ashamed to do a farmers job.’ – this would be a very important lesson to show people in the movie. That one must consider all jobs to be equal. No job is less respectful, or should be done by only certain people.

 

The sites that you may need to film this- travelling scenes could be filmed any where. Some scenes filmed in the sanctuary would be also quite nice. The snake handling would all be have to filmed at one of the snake parks in the country. I guess the croc bank to be one of the best places to shoot this.

The ploughing scene could be filmed in any field.  I consider it to be a very important scene for the movie.

The sight of the student teaching other younger students at schools, and being an inspiration and example would also be quite nice.- at one occasion I remember I was also invited to be a chief guest at Belgaum-.