When Goel completed his B.Com last year, he realised that economics and accounts were not for him. ``I have always been interested in wildlife. I have attended the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) camps at Melghat and enjoy bird-watching. But it was when I volunteered at the Katraj Snake Park that my curiosity about parasites was aroused''.

``At the snake park, I noticed that the snakes had parasites on them - arachnids with eight legs, ticks (small round creatures that maybe visible to the naked eye), mites (more spider-like and not visible normally)...''

Goel collected the samples and decided to study them further. With guidance from H.R. Bhatt (parasitologist, formerly with the National Institute of Virology), he realised that there was not much study done on snake parasites. ``I find them absolutely engrossing. In fact, I am planning to give the entrance exam at the Wildlife Institute of India to be qualified to study them further''.

To learn about ticks and mites, Goel obviously has to catch the snakes first. This he learnt from the staffers at the snake park. ``To catch a snake, one has to first know how to behave in front of it. Since snakes cannot hear, they only follow movement. So one should be absolutely still. Non-poisonous snakes are easier to catch. You have to catch them by the head.

``Catching the poisonous ones is frightening. A bite can be extremely painful and treatment is expensive. To catch it, you grip the head with a stick. Then you hold its mouth and put it in a basket or gunnybag''.

After catching them, Goel looks for the ``scales under the scales,'' where the parasites are found. He puts them in a five to 10 per cent formal in solution. Then, with the help of Bhatt, he identifies them. ``I can identify only up to the family level''.

Goel aims to do an in-depth study about the correlation between parasites and the length of the snakes, their habitat, any seasonal variations with this infestation and whether there are any species that are more prone to ticks. This, he feels, is important because snakes can die due to this infestation. So far he has studied up to 12 varieties of snakes. ``Generally, a snake has 20 to 25 ticks and I am interested in collecting as many varieties as I can''.

Knowledge about his obsession is slowly spreading in the neighbourhood. Every time people in Koregaon Park find a snake in their building, Goel obliges them by catching it. And then begins his search for the ``scales under the scales''.