For the first time I went to a private school as a Bookaroo volunteer and there was a marked difference in the experience. My talent for the day was Jose Louise, who has been the most interesting person I have accompanied so far. Mr. Louise trains forest guards to combat wild animals for a living!

I picked him up from his Noida office at 8 in the morning and headed for Rohini and the Venkateshwara Global School. It was a long journey from one end of NCR to the other but I wasn’t complaining. Mr.Louise was endlessly entertaining and freely shared his experiences of belonging to the beautiful symbiosis of nature and development that is Kerala and his experiences rescuing snakes and training wildlife personnel in the densest of jungles.

On my way I called the Principal who gave us precise directions to the school and inspite of a minor traffic situation and a major crazy-driver situation we reached the School on time.

Venkateshwara Global School has the plush appeal that is typical of schools of its kind. It was a pleasant experience meeting the staff there who welcomed us and accompanied us to the children who were sitting in neat rows in a room on the third floor. Mr. Jose Louise’s credentials and professional interest in snakes was enough to hook the children to the session.

Mr.Louise was charismatic and informative at the same time. He referred to his friend Janki Lenin’s book on King Cobras and enthralled the children with his fun facts about snakes. The children were exceptionally responsive and grilled him with incessant questions. Finally, we had to request the teachers to announce that we were out of time. A quick goodbye to the Principal and handing over of posters and fliers neatly wrapped up the session.

- Jit Banerjee