And they were dunked in the river. To be born again.

I was at the river with my niece Divya to give her some swimming lessons. Actually, more
than learning swimming, her interest was just to splash around in the cool water, float on
the bike tube and try to catch the small fish that swam around in the shallow water near
the river bank.

Divya would normally not stay away from her mother (my sister) for even a day and a
swim in the river was the bait that I used, to have her visit and spend a few days at my
parent's home for Christmas. And it worked. From the initial 3 days that she agreed to,
she ended up spending 5 full days at our home.

And I am sure, going forward, she would jump at any chance to come over to our place,
just for the chance to have some fun in the water. It was also a chance for me to refresh my
swimming skills, which I had not had a chance to use for quite some time now.

So, for all the 5 days that she spent at my parent's home, we would go to the river in the morning and evening and spend a couple of hours there. And even after such a long duration,
I had to literally drag her away from the water. Given a choice, she would just remain there
all day.

We even brought Ann (my younger niece) to the river one day. She was initially frightened
at entering the water. So, I took her on the boat across the river and back and then slowly
she warmed up to the prospect of entering the water, though she was scared of the fishes swimming around. She did spend some time with us, mainly lying on the tube, and though
she looked very happy, it somehow did not do it for her. So, she chose not to join us for our subsequent trips to the river.

It is like 11AM and while Divya is splashing around in the shallow water, I swim to the middle
of the river and back. I have never had the courage to swim to the other bank and back, but these few days have given me the confidence to attempt it during my next trip to Kerala.

We are enjoying the warmth of the sun and just lazing in the water, when a group of two men
and five women come to the river bank. We think that they are waiting for the boatman to take them across the river. But, their motive was different. One of the men, a young guy of 35 years or so, calls out to us and asks if we mind them using the shallow end of the river bank for a few minutes for the purpose of baptism.

I reply that we have no issues and infact if they so desire, we could even get out of the river
till they are done. He has no problems with us being in the water, so I move a little away and also tell Divya to give them some space. I have seen the Pentecosts (a Christian denomination) doing their baptism at the river before. But for Divya this is something new and she is all eyes.

The guy (must be the Pastor) wades into the river till the water is till his chest. One of the women is sitting on the river bank, while the other four follow him into the river and stand in front of him, till they are waist deep in water. He chants some prayers and then one-by-one dunks the four women into water for a few seconds and brings them up. See pic.



All this time Divya is staring wide-eyed at the proceedings and asks me if this is the same thing that John the Baptist did, which is mentioned in the Bible. I reply that it is and she is all excited at having been witness to a real baptism. Other Christian denominations (especially Catholics) have the baptism in the church itself and it just involves splashing a few drops of water on the baby.

The baptism done, the pastor prays for having had a chance to baptise four believers and for having made them born again. He thanks us and the group moves to a neighbouring house to change their wet clothes, leaving the whole river bank free for us again.