Tripod Finds a Friend and Other Stories by Dr. Roopa Satish and Anitha Murthy was released by Usha Rajagopalan at Puttenahalli Lake on Saturday July 22nd.
The interactions between Usha, the authors and the audience were engaging and never ending! It was indeed so absorbing that no one paid heed to the drizzle that started when the discussion was underway. Each one simply picked up their chair and shifted to the gazebo. For once, the star of the event was not the lake but Tripod and its authors.
Read below some of the feedback we received on this event and the book. The first by a 13 year old who’s clearly a Harry Potter fan!
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Meeting a wildlife veterinarian who can speak …... hm..mhm.. PARSEL TONGUE!!!
-- Just an attempt to make it spooky (I hope it was) --
So, ignore everything that is spooky. Now let me tell you that there’s an endangered animal known as the “Tripod”. Tripod? What’s that? Read on to find out!
It was an exciting day, filled with happiness and a day filled with “chirps” all along the Puttenahalli lake, as I stood in front of a gathering of wildlife enthusiasts, curious readers, and writers. Here is what I learnt from the conversation between Dr. Roopa Satish, Ms. Anitha Murthy, and Ms. Usha Rajagopalan:
• I got to know about the Red Eared Slider invasion in the lake.
• I got to know a lot about the amazing patients whom Dr. Roopa Satish has rehabilitated at the Bannerghatta Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center (WRRC).
• I heard this astonishing tale of her giving CPR to a snake. Yeah! That was when I found out she knew Parsel tongue.
• I got to know a lot about the snake bites and also got helpful tips to save the mother snake at my apartment complex from people who want to kill it.
• I finally found someone who could help me save a Rose-ringed parakeet that was caged and beaten up by her owners.
For now, I look forward to reading the book and knowing more about wildlife to achieve my dream of becoming an owner of all types of pets and also be a forest officer. Lastly, I found out there were 2 lovely dogs in the lake that like to interact with everyone. Thank you PNLIT (Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust) for such an eye opener session and a learning opportunity.
By V. Ramanujam, 13 years
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Tripod Finds a Friend and other stories by Dr Roopa Satish and Anitha Murthy is not an ordinary book. It is a squeeze of the life experience of a Vet and her bubbling passion for wildlife. The subtext of the book is Stories of wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. They are heartwarming and at the same time revelatory for city dwellers like me. We also got to know about many faceless unknown champions who are driven by their passion to save wildlife and create shared and safe space for non-human species.
Did you know that in our urban vicinity we have animals like Slender Loris, Pangolin, and Fox? How would you distinguish a Turtle, Terrapin and Tortoise? You might have spotted a Civet cat and Mongoose but mentioned them interchangeably without a second thought? Thanks to our commercial celluloid projections and popular beliefs, do you think of snakes as reptiles, slithering and dangerous for human beings? What is the difference between poisonous and venomous?
We learned these and more in a mesmerizing interaction with the authors. Dr. Roopa Satish enthralled the audience, kids and grown-ups alike, with her animated storytelling, dark humour and sometimes narrating the harrowing experiences in a lighter vein.
It was good to see how young readers in the gathering seemed to understand the subject matter better than adults. This is a positive sign that our civilization will progress forward along with the doomsayer's prediction of the climate crisis and global warming.
This book is well-written, and tightly edited but it deserves better print quality. I hope the authors will take care to correct the text alignment and fonts in the next edition. Nonetheless, such shortcomings did not make the stories any less interesting. Soon after the book was released and discussions began, the sky opened up and mother nature showered her blessings. Kudos to Dr. Roopa Satish and Anitha Murthy for bringing out such a wonderful compilation of real stories from the wild. Such stories need happy endings. Let the world of Tripod, Mooshie and their ilk educate and create greater awareness among us, and make us sensitive and responsible humans.
By Gautam Saha
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I attended a book launch on July 22nd of Tripod Finds a Friend, and other stories co-authored by Dr. Roopa Satish and Anitha Murthy. I am a sucker for children's books, and Tripod... is not only beautifully written - thrilling, compassionate, with a touch of crime - it is filled with fun-facts and learning. One learning I had from the book was about "imprinting" - never touch a baby wild animal with bare hands, or cuddle it (no matter how much affection you feel for it) because you transfer your germs onto it and it may not be accepted back by its clan and this can be disastrous for its survival.
At the book launch event, it was an absolute pleasure listening to Dr. Roopa Satish speak. Her passion for her work (which is as niche as it can get) and her compassion for all things living, including snakes and humans, is palpable. She shared many interesting anecdotes, and facts, about human animal interaction, which had everyone in the audience captivated and wanting to know more.
Anyone who is looking for their next guest speaker at a corporate event, I would highly recommend inviting Dr. Roopa Satish i.e. if she can drag herself away from performing intricate surgeries on terrapins or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on cobras!
By Lalana Zaveri
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Picture credits - SK Srinivas and Nupur Jain
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