Ram was a childhood friend of mine. Whenever I visited my Dadi’s place, I always made a point to visit him. He had a innocence with him unlike the city people, which I liked. So this time when I visited my Dadi, I visited him. We always did a lot of masti. This time I wanted to go for fishing. This was a perfect season. Monsoons had started. So I was a little excited. Ram and I walked to a pond nearby. There was a boat. I sat on it and he pushed it into the pond and quickly jumped onto the boat. We had brought our fishing equipment….not the kind of equipment to boast about. We made it at home with a long stick and a string. A small ‘U’ shaped hook at the end of the string. And a thermocol piece in the middle of the string. It floats on the top of the water. When a fish baits the hooks. The thremocol piece goes up and down in the water and you knew you have a fish on to the hook. And you pull it up. Very simple piece of equipment!!!!

A crude form of fishing hook. But it served our purpose.

We sat there trying our luck with the fishes. After about 10 minutes I got a little impatient.

“Caught anything?” I asked looking at Ram.

He shook his head.

“No yaar!!! Give it sometime!!” he said patiently.

Half an hour passed by. It started to rain. We sat there not budging an inch. Our determination was high. We will go home catching a fish.

Another half an hour passed by. And still no luck.

“I think we should get back now. It’s getting dark” Ram said. He had a dejected look on his face.

I had to agree. Today was not a lucky day. We didn’t catch a single fish and were totally drenched by the rains. We started to walk towards our home. It was a sad and a dejected walk. Ahead we saw, Ghosh Babu walking in the other direction. He was the local police inspector

“Gone fishing eh???” he asked.

“Yes….and not a single fish today in our bags!!” I said

“Oh that’s bad….Monsoon’s are a good time to fish….you didn’t catch a single fish…that’s strange!!!” Ghosh babu said.

“Yes….we went to the pond near Mr.Mukherjee’s house.” Ram Said

“You went there??? That explains it!!” Ghosh babu’s eyes lit up. As if he solved a mystery.

“Why??” Both Ram and I asked in unision.

“Well. No fish is there in that pond. A year ago, some limestone was found in the base of the pond so the salt content of the pond is high. So no fish can survive!!!!” He said in a very dramatic fashion, with both his hands flying around here and there.

Both Ram and I looked into each other’s face!!! All this time we were fishing for nothing!!!

“Ram” I said, “How come you didn’t know about this??”

“Oh….Only a few people in this town know about it….” Ghosh Babu interrupted.

“That’s right” Ram said, “I didn’t know!!” He was shaking his head. It was clear he didn’t know.

We said goodbye to Ghosh Babu and had resumed walking.

“Tomorrow we go to the fish market and get a few fish for ourselves. It’s the fish that matters” I said and chuckled a little.

“Yes, you are right!!!” Ram had started to smile.

Very soon we were laughing at our stupid episode. Trying to catch a fish in a fishless pond. When I bid him adieu, I promised I would write this down in my blog.