The fish trail

The fish trail

A hobby is something which we do in our leisure time. Passion is something which we make time for. The following story will elucidate the difference between the two.

I have a doctor friend who is so crazy after fish. Not for eating but for rearing them in his little pond where he will watch them swim in lovely patterns every morning in the warm morning sunlight.

So, one day, he set out to procure a lot of tiny fish from a village pond, the owner of which was a friend of his office staff.

Actually, he had a busy day lined up in office but he made the time for the very important trip. He and his staff took advantage of the lunch hour and started driving towards the village, thinking that the whole mission would take only one hour.

His office staff had asked a man from the village to keep the fish ready for his boss. But nothing was ready perhaps because of the laid back lifestyle of the village folk and also who would have thought that a doctor working in a busy hospital in the heart of the city would come running down for a shoal of fish in the middle of the day.

To make matters worse, the man said that they had to go to a neighbouring village for the fish. Lunch hour was already up but the mission had to be accomplished. Thinking that it could not be much further, they proceeded.

A neighouring village is not like a neighbouring block in the city. The road was not motorable by car. So, they had to take a tricycle to reach their destination. In the hot afternoon sun, the doctor and his staff were already very exhausted but they had come too far to retreat without achieving their goal.

Finally, they arrived at the bountiful pond. But, they had  expected the fish to have been already caught and kept ready for transportation since the whole trip was based on prior communication that on that day the fish would be taken to town. But, the fish were still swimming in shoals in the pond.

At the end of their tether now, they almost gave up. But to have come this far and to go back empty handed.. well, that was not acceptable. So, they proceeded with their purpose. The owner of the pond brought out a small net and started catching the fish one by one, at a painfully slow rate. The deal was to buy two kilograms of small fish and going back on this agreement would be highly dishonourable. 

So, they stretched their patience to its limit and waited for the small fish to reach such a number that would weigh two kilograms. Finally, the golden number came after much waiting. The payment was completed without any haggling since there was no time for that and the city men were ready to head back.

When they finally reached their office, it was already closed. So, they headed home. 

The happy doctor, though dog-tired went straight to his pond and released the half-fainting fish into the cool water of his pond. The fish had been transported without any arrangement for oxygen poly bags which was usually the norm. So, almost half of them were almost floating up. But, as the saying goes..’like a fish takes to water’..they all started swimming and the happy doctor heaved a sigh of relief.

The tedious fish trail ended there. But, weeks later, I suddenly remembered about this sojourn and asked him whether the fish were still alive and the sad reply was that they could not adapt to the new environment and all of them died one by one till nothing was left but only his determination to set out on another similar quest.

Good luck, next time!

Memchoubi Phanjoubam