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‘I now have a companion to sleep and dance with’
She was ecstatic about the Court order that her pet cobra be returned. “I will dance with her. I will now have a companion to sleep beside me,” …. year old Nirosha Wimalaratne, a nightclub dancer declared with joy on Friday. After a month-long court battle, Colombo Fort Magistrate Kanishka Wijeratne ordered that the cobra be returned to her.
Nirosha Wimalaratne: Happy with the verdict.
She will take charge of her pet from the Zoological Gardens in Dehiwala, on Tuesday.
Nirosha’s tale of woe began when the Kollupitiya Police raided the Cleopatra Nightclub at the Liberty Plaza at dawn one morning in August this year. She was arrested and charged under the Animals Ordinance and Cruelty to Animals Act and the Dangerous Animals Act, for keeping a snake in her possession.
“I usually sleep a lot, but, because of the mental agony, I could not sleep even after my tiring performance at the club that went on till the small hours, because l was deprived of my pet cobra,” she said.
“I even had scary dreams and woke up from my sleep many times,” she confessed, adding that, she hoped that her troubles would soon end, although the case filed against her by the Police, and the Fundamental Rights case filed by her against the Kollupitiya Police, are still pending.
“Dilani Chopra is my Indian name,” said Nirosha Wimalaratne, who was adopted by Sri Lankan parents from Danthure, Kandy. She attended Danthure Central College. She claimed to be a lonely child who was underfed, as her adopted parents, who were once well-to-do, had become poor.
She says she does not remember much about her childhood, and what made her parents give her up for adoption. Her adopted parents would not tell her what made them adopt her, but only told her that it was “a long story”.
But she remembers her Iranian father telling her that her mother was a snake. “I don’t believe him, but I believe some species of Cobras could change their shapes,” she said.
The exotic nightclub dancer
She also said that their parents had separate rooms in their home. “I think my father wanted to separate me from my mother,” Nirosha said in a broken voice. Although both mother and daughter were in touch with each other, her mother always wanted to be away from her.
“I missed my family, especially my mother, so much,” she said, adding that she had been brought up alone when she was 11-years-old.
“Whenever I saw children with their parents and how caring these parents were, I felt like crying. I feel my parents have not done their duty by me,” she said, giving vent to her inner tensions.
Her mother too kept snakes she said, adding that her mother had a king cobra which can let out a jet stream of poison, at their home at Nashik in India. Her fascination for cobras started in her childhood.
And she had started petting a cobra in Dodanwela Dewalaya in the neighborhood. She brought the cobra down to Colombo to show her friends, and intended returning it to the dewalaya.
“But unfortunately, the Police arrested me on the previous day, and filed a case against me, alleging that I had ill-treated my pet.”
She said that she would feed it with milk and eggs. She also believes that there is a strong bond between her and her pet, and think it has some divine affiliation. This, she said, had prevented her from accepting alcoholic drinks from her guests.
Unpleasant experiences with friends has made her keep people at arms length, while preferring to live alone most of the time. However, she added that she has a boyfriend who is living in Dubai. She also has a brother in Iran, who has visited her on several occasions.
Her hobbies, she said, are few; she has a pet toque macaque and she also enjoys travelling. Apart from that, she lives her life just like any other woman. She has a motorbike; her first dream, while she is yet to realise her second dream, which is to own a house and start life anew, and of course, visit her mother in India.
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