Helper function to escape uncomfortable characters.

def escape_chars(text, chars):
    """Helper function to escape uncomfortable characters."""
    text = str(text)
    chars = list(set(chars))
    if '\\' in chars:
        chars.remove('\\')
        chars.insert(0, '\\')
    for ch in chars:
        text = text.replace(ch, '\\' + ch)
    return text