Swimming into our hearts

On a Friday evening, a quarter of the city was on the road driving back to their hometowns where they had someone waiting for them. The second quarter was seen entering the pubs of Bangalore to savor the spirits which made Gods go crazy. The city was well known for the indulgence that it can offer and was always popular among the youth. A large chunk of home-loving dads and moms were busy planning the weekend to ensure it ended being busier than the weekday. The little that was left after all the quarters and large chunks, were few homebodies. Adam was a proud homebody who never even in his shortest dream also had a thought that he wanted to step out of his house. He was elated by the Kishore Kumar songs that he was listening on his newfound love Caravan. Adam did know that "aanewala pal jaanewala hai" and if I said to him earlier during the day that "yeh shaam mastani", he would have pushed me aside bringing out his handy statistics demonstrating how in last 364 weekends in Bangalore, he had only stepped out thrice and that was .008% chance etc. Deep down he knew there was always a possibility of a 4th time, but his mind had discounted that for the benefit of saving large bucks to spend on his home construction back at home. Adam was one of those rare guys who even saved money by not going to his own home.

While we could say it as unexpected but maybe the subconscious cooked and made it possible, Adam got a call from Eve that Friday evening asking to step out to have a quick chat on the upcoming dance fest. He had shamelessly taken my red jacket without my permission and my roommate's bike to go pick Eve to head to that unknown destination. The guy who doesn't even step out to have a masala puri, was all happy, excited and glammed up to meet Eve with whom he would have hardly spoken twice in office. First time might have been to ask what has her name just as a reciprocating to her question as a good gesture and second time when he was lost in the maze on 12th floor of his office building on how to reach the lift lobby since she was the only one, he knew by name in the whole floor and dared to look in the eye. That was very much the Adam we knew! 

Few quick rounds of spirit of God, made both step over those lines which was well drawn on a sober day. Maybe it was planned and that I just didn’t know, one had convinced the other to go nearest lake fully drunk for an adventure to fish. Adam knew that Eve had already started to nibble on his bait and convincing her was a piece of cake for him. Or maybe I assume it was he who convinced her and knowing Eve, there was always an equal probability of her leading the way and convincing him too. We never know how people change once they are wasted and how it opens the parts of the spinal code which a yogi would fail after decades of effort. Such was the power that was stored in those fancy bottles which was well organized and arranged in the bar. Knowing them both, I could confidently say that neither of them had ever tried fishing before. Not even when myself and our whole gang who hardly knew to swim, jumped into the coracle boat on the adventure camp of Bheemeshwari to fish for food for our dinner. Being a staunch vegetarian didn’t deter me from fishing but these two showed the least interest and wanted to continue in the game zone playing chess.

Getting a fishing rod and required articles for the adventure was never this easy as per Adam, as they were available to rent for a night at affordable prices. I made a note of that for our future trip to explore. While fishing they quickly learned that if you need to get a large fish take the bait, they really needed to have compelling baits hooked to the end. Their preparation was only equipped to satisfy the need of smaller fishes which were often neglected by other fishing enthusiasts. Let’s call it luck or timing, they did catch a strange looking fish which was as colorful as those aquarium ones which you find in your local stores. The tiny one had an eye of an eagle and colors of a peacock. Strange but true, it was a not a fish that you could catch and throw it back. The professionals around the lake at midnight convinced them that once you catch a fish, you either must eat it or protect its life until natural death dials its number. Even though at the onset it looked superstitious, those two were in the best of their moods to embrace anything after those bottles that were dumped by the side of the broken park bench by the dying Lebbeck tree. I have witnessed lot of weird things drunk people but this was my first experience hearing of someone choosing to go fishing. Long story short, the little colorful fish was home sitting in a Horlicks jar which he could hardly swim horizontally which made him only enjoy a vertical swim. We decided to name her Dory or maybe we conveniently assumed it is she as it is a boy’s only abode which was her new home.

In few days of having Dory, we managed to chip-in some cash and buy her a better home which was well sealed with a wonderful state of art filtering system which guaranteed no water change for a Year. And this was a must for a house filled and frequented with bachelors. In few weeks, we found the aquarium could be bit overwhelming for Dory as we found her often lost in different corners of the tank entangled in those fancy ferns meticulously arranged by the aquarist and nothing else to do other than just swim, wait for us to come home in the evening to gobble up some fish food and then again sleep and continue her business. Maybe that is pretty much all the fishes do in an aquarium. We were bored seeing Dory bored everyday in that lonely aquarium of ours which we still didn’t know who will get to keep when we all split up in couple of years. One fine evening, for some reason we all three home dwellers surprised each other that last few days we all were thinking to get a friend for Dory to swim along and enjoy the little dips in the pool and chew a bit on the ferns. We went to find a fish which looked like Nemo and finally after visiting many stores we found a lookalike. We knew that we were going to name the next guy Nemo, as if it was decided by the celestial powers who controlled the universe.

Now with two swimming in tandem and often playing hide n seek behind the ferns, our minds were at peace finally. Someone once told me that watching fishes swim was one of the shortcut to have better concentration, I wonder whether it really helped me improve my concentration. I was always watching them like a personal cctv on the aquarium and others at home could even go care free for long time as they knew I would be behind the fishes. I even made reasons to clean the tank and fill with fresh water every now and then even though we had got a filter thinking let them enjoy fresh water. I even made my hands turn purple by dipping them in potassium permanganate water to disinfect them. Maybe it was peace at home or maybe the little meditation exercises that I had started which made me wonder more and more about why these two little aquatic creatures were so excited about in this little tank swimming its breadth and width without actually going anywhere and not even being sure whether it is a tank or they just went past a similar looking fern again. One week of keen observation made me understand what they were telling each other, again maybe it was the wine that we had before dinner doing its magic. I understood that they were so happy to be in this aquarium in our flat because there was no way they would be hunted down by the predators of the underwater. There was no reason to worry whether their moms came home in the evening, the food was served on time here with these three boys taking turns to feed the little swimmers from nowhere. Like everyone we also wondered how a lake fish and an aquarium bred fish can live together in the same tank and stand each other. I was quite certain that Adam and Eve after their booze story, might have got Dory from some little boy who had bought it from an aquarist paying some good ransom which was enough for the boy to get another fish and still pocket money for a chaat from the corner cool joint.

Taking care of both the tiny swimmers because another chore in the following Months which was filled with hectic work schedules and missed milestones, one leading to another or one the cause of another, which we could never determine as newbies in the job. Even though we were convinced that Dory was store bought as much as Nemo was, Eve out of anger on Adam had decided to exercise her executive power to put the fish back in the lake. And yes, this time she was expecting us to part ways with both Dory and Nemo. We did our best to fight the mini battle with as much as peace as possible by our side but Eve was in no mood to budge. She claimed it was her decision to bring Dory which led to Nemo and she owned them in many ways which Adam also silently agreed neglecting our winking signals to take our side. Eve had brought another Horlicks looking jar and managed to load both Dory and Eve to it, I saw them chewing on the malted Horlicks which would have been left glued to the bottle and left unnoticed by the hygiene maniac Eve.

 

Call it bad luck or destiny, this is the first time I saw the old scooter start at the first kick ever. I used to curse this scooter every other day for various other reasons but that seems to be the day I despised the day I got it from hometown for local services. Later it became the mass commuter for everyone who ever came to our room and stayed with us or even distant neighbors whom my roomies met during their cigarette breaks in nearby shops. That scooter had first come home with my dad when I was 10Years old and ever since stayed as part of the family. Even though I keep complaining about it, I just can’t sell it off to anyone. Back to the pressing problem, Adam and Eve carried both the little swimmers to the fresh water lake. Me and that new other guy who joined our room, took an auto and followed them to the lake. At our watch, we saw how both Dory and Nemo jumped into the lake happily thinking we had planned a new little adventure for them. The trust they had in us was immense that they would not have thought twice before diving into the waters. It might have taken maybe two good minutes that we heard Eve’s scream and loud cries. Thinking whether we missed Adam falling into the lake and might have been drowning, we exposing ourselves from the hiding and ran to her. We understood how little Dory and Nemo was chewed by a larger monster fish in the lake who didn’t really understand the sentiments we have build for the other two. It took some effort to calm them both down and referee the fights between them blaming each other for the loss of the two little adorable fishes.

Fast forward to later that night, I had called home to share the sad news with my parents. What they told me stuck with me all these years and I think it still makes sense. This is the same fate of parents that we went through, they have kids and grow them up fully protected and caring and nurturing them into mini adults, then they part with them for college and jobs. Some survives it and some gets eaten by the bigger fishes of this world, parents can only be sad and doubt whether they did right by overprotecting us or whether they should have left us to mend for ourselves much younger which would have made us smarter to face the world. There is no real short answer for sure, both could world and both may not work. I learned a valuable lesson and decided never to be that big fish and of course never to keep small fishes either.