Water Baby

Konnagar…that’s where my home is. Literally translated, it means which town. Funny name indeed for a place and often my friends in school and college would pull my leg by asking, “Where are you from.” I would say, “Konnagar.” Promptly they would ask again,”Kon Nagar se?”.

I did my schooling from a Christian Missionary school at Kolkata and then completed my engineering degree from a private college at Sreerampur. I have been applying for jobs but in West Bengal there is nothing much happening and opportunities for the youth are almost negligible. The big factories near my home town like Hind Motors, where the famous Ambassador cars would be manufactured, and Rishra, which was booming during the hey days of jute industry, have all become dormant.  The only option for most of us here is to move out from the state. Most of my college friends have moved to places like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi and the rich handful have flown overseas. Thanks to WA, we keep in touch… I mean they keep in touch. I remain a silent member for I have nothing happening in my life worth sharing.

Most of the youth in my town and in this state enjoy adda or what you might say is a place where they come together to talk on every subject under the sun. They will have multiple rounds of tea without milk and sugar and smoke endlessly. If you were to listen to them, you might get confused that you’re face to face with thinkers who would be no less than Voltaire or Jean Paul Satre with ideas to change the world. Most of them also play the carrom board well. I somehow have never taken to going to these addas in the neighbouring clubs house often called byayam samitis which, in earlier days, used to be the gym for the common folks.

I prefer staying at home, listening to music and reading books which range from fiction to history, from travel to sci-fi. But the thing I enjoy most is swimming in our pond behind our house. We used to have a huge holding of land but we have now been selling small plots almost every year to keep the fire in the kitchen burning. We have, however, held on to the pond which we call pukur and keep it as clean as is possible. I go for my swim three times a day and stay in the water for long. Over time, I have now perfected the art of underwater swimming where I can hold my breath while going from one point of the pond to another. Doing this often gives me great joy.

The joy is not just of being able to accomplish the task of holding breath for long but enjoy the view beneath the surface. I often go deep below to enjoy the marine life that exists there. There are these snakes which wriggle past you. Since childhood I was told by my father that the snakes in the pond are not poisonous, so I have never felt any fear of these creatures. My cousins from Kolkata get completely paranoid when they see the water snakes whenever they come to visit us and dare to go swimming in the pond. Most of these snakes have stripes on their bodies and when they swim in a wriggly fashion with the sunlight piercing the water, there is a feel of an optical illusion of a kind difficult to pen down. Then, there are these weeds that grow beneath with flowing leaves, as if waving to me to come close to them. There are also rocks of various shapes and sizes which have algae covering them. If you were to put your foot on any of them, you would surely slip and hurt yourself.

Of all the things beneath the water the most fascinating are the fish. But if you think that I am able to see all the colourful fishes that David Attenborough shows you on Nat Geo and Animal Kingdom, then I am sorry to disappoint you. All I see are simple grey and silver fishes like rohu, katla, pabda, tangra…. almost all of which find a place on a Bengali platter. It goes without saying , we also do not have the huge whales or the deadly sharks in our ponds. These are the regular fish, not exotic, and I am comfortable in my water kingdom. These different fishes and other creatures are my adda and I can be with them for hours together without getting bored or tired. I try to explore different parts of the pond and get to see newer creatures of different shapes and sizes but my usual underwater dive always starts from where my house is to the other end.

In this long dive, lately, I have been noticing a pair of silver fishes silently following me. When I dive in deeper, the two of them in perfect sync, dive in almost to the equal depth. If I were to move to the right or left, the two expertly move in the same direction. It is quite possible these two fishes are having some fun seeing a large creature in their midst moving up and down without causing any harm to anyone. Usually, the smaller fishes avoid the larger ones and hide in the weeds and rocks but maybe these two have been watching my movement over time and have realised, he’s one of us. On days when I take another route on my underwater dives, I am beginning to miss my tiny friends. Next when I show up, the two of them rush with great speed towards me. Reminds me of the dog we had at home. When we returned from school, he would rush towards me and put his paws up on my tiny shoulders, wagging his tail and saliva drooling incessantly. It would take him quite a while to calm down and it seemed he was questioning….where were you…why did you leave me and go….I missed you very much. Now, after many years, I am getting the same old feeling of the love of pets.

Sorry, these two tiny fishes, no more than the size of my palm, are not my pets. They are just companions in my water adda. I smile seeing them come everyday and can feel them talk to me… come let’s have fun bro! Funny creatures are these two for I do not feed them, I know not where they come from and where they live and yet a bond is getting formed in a world away from the sight of the big world. Watching their smooth movements has made me copy their style and now my swimming skills too have improved. I no longer splash water as I move ahead. My hands gently caress the water top and there is now hardly a ripple. Most improvement has come to the movement of my feet which earlier would hardly flap. Now, I have seen the champions swimming and my feet steer my body effortlessly. Some of my friends who join me in the water have noticed my new good style and are all praise for it.  They ask me who taught me this fluent style. I tell them my friends who swim with me every day. I must, however, state that my friends from the water world somehow do not come close to me when the others are with me. Don’t know whether it is their fear or jealousy which keeps them away.

I gave names to my tiny duo…Bapi and Binni…a boy’s name and a girl’s… though I did not know who was who. Just assumed the two were a couple. And then, after some time, I was proven right. Along with Bapi and Binni, I soon saw a whole lot of the tiniest fish you would ever see. They had kids….loads of them. The baby fishes, no more than a few inches, would now swim with their parents and I looked more like a aircraft carrier with a flotilla of ships and aircrafts all around me. I wish I had a camera with which I could capture these beautiful moments which, possibly, would have got millions of clicks on the social media. Maybe, my other friends in the real world adda would also see me and my world and stop calling me anti-social and snob. I sure was doing good, no matter whether people saw me or not.

I am now going into the water at least five times a day to the utter surprise and anger of my mother who thinks I have completely lost it. She keeps on telling me to read the newspaper and fill up forms for vacancies in government departments and banks. I do it just to make her happy but my happiness lies in the pond now. I can now see the little fishes grow inch by inch. But as they say, everything is momentary and all good times also come to and end. One day, as I was swimming, I saw a school of large fish coming from the opposite side. My tiny friends tried turning around as if they sensed danger. I kept on moving ahead as the water had turned crowded and there seemed to be some sort of scuffle with which I had nothing to do.

Next morning, I returned to the water and dived in. the water seemed all too quiet and calm. The Bapi and Binni family was nowhere to be seen. I finished one lap and came out of the water for air.Then I dived in again and went deeper. Yet again, I saw no trace of my friends. I waited longer near the large weeds from where, I knew, they often came out of every day. There I saw Bapi stationary, afloat just above the floor of the pond. I went closer and I saw that Bapi had in his mouth a whisker and on the other end of it lay, on the floor, a head. Near the weeds, two lonely babies were swimming around oblivious of what had happened. I went away and let Bapi to his grief.

In a couple of hours, I dived into the water once again and went close to the place where I had seen the family in the morning. Bapi was still there, almost at the same place. The head beneath was now covered with mud, only a bit of it was visible. As I swam ahead, the two surviving kiddos started following me. I started keeping a close eye on any intruder. Even a faint hint of some disturbance in the water made me alert and turn around to envelop the tiny fishes.

This went on for a few days. Bapi refused to join the swim and I did not see him again. The kids were always waiting for me. Now I have stopped taking any other route for my swim. It is always the straight route where the kids know my time and speed and they were now accustomed to my being with them five times a day. I am always worried, when on land, about these tiny lives. How will they survive any attack by another fish in my absence? I became paranoid and took to the water more often but I knew very well that I just could not be there always. I had to do something.

Every fortnight the pond was given to a contractor who would lay the net at night and in the morning pull it up. The bigger fishes would be put in big tanks of water and the smaller ones set free. I knew that most of the killers had been punished but still a few remained. The danger to the babies was real.

Next morning, I went into the water and as the two tiny babies came close to me, I extended my arm. They came swimming and settled on my palm. I held them gently and put them in a polythene bag. I walked out of the pond and put the water in a big aquarium I had bought from the market. I also got some fish food for the duo. The aquarium sits nicely on my study desk and I have decorated it with some nice objects and lights. A few colourful fishes are there as well to give my babies company. I don’t go for my swims so often now, maybe twice a day at best. I don’t know how the little ones feel inside a small box but I have found my peace and am now able to help Ma with chores and also do my preparations for the multiple selection examinations.

SS

Pictures courtesy: Sagar Datta