and son were at Chennai for a long vacation around the Easter holidays. One 'ritual' that we
follow on all weekends that I am at Kerala is for the 3 of us to take off on my wife's Scooty &
try to explore a new place in the neighborhood.
Oh yes, there are so many places in just a 2-3 km radius of my home that I never even knew existed. We even 'discovered' an island in the neighbourhood - ofcourse a post on that still remains in my mindspace, with the snaps resting on my laptop, yet to make an appearance
here in cyberspace. Hopefully will do it soon if work permits - since I took on an additional
project at work, it has been crazy at work - have been living in the office on most days.
Yesterday, it had been kinda hot all day and after a short afternoon siesta, we thought the
best thing would be to take a dip in the river, instead of roaming around on the bike. Since
my son loves it and I also enjoy the coolness of the water, we went to the usual spot near
my friend's home for 30 minutes of water-fun.
I have been bringing my son to the river since he was just 6 months old and even then while lying in my arms on the water surface, he would instinctively paddle his feet. I would wonder
how he would do this instinctively (he being too young then to understand even if I asked him
to do), while it was such a big task to make my nieces do the same, when I was trying to teach them swimming.
A picture of me holding my son while he splashes around in the river :
Ofcourse now that he is older, he does not want my arms holding him and wants me to just
leave him alone in the water, which I cannot do because while he thinks the river is just a
bigger version of his bath-tub at home, the fact is that it is much more dangerous. So, inspite
of him trying his best to remove my hands off him, I ensure that he is safe.
When my nieces are around, we usually venture a little away from the shore, given that they
are taller. But with my son, it is enough that we stay just a metre or so away from the bank of the river. So I sit on the powdery sand in the river with water till my waist, while the water
level is enough for my son to play yet be safe.
I can see schools of small fishes roaming around freely - they are called Yettai / Mushi in the
local language. I guess the English nomenclature would be 'catfish'. It looks very easy to catch them with your bare hands, but when you do try, they slip away easily. I have once caught a bigger version of this fish with a fishing rod.
A picture I got from the net which has the closest resemblance to the fish I mentioned above,
though have to admit that the small ones I see are more muddy in color than yellow. But the
bigger one I caught was yellow in color - so maybe a color transformation takes place when
they mature.
As I sit there in around 1 feet deep water, watching my son thrash around in the water, I feel something nip at my legs. It's these small fish that are pecking away at my feet. Usually they target dead skin on your feet or any open bruises. I had an almost-fully-recovered bruise on
my leg due to shoe-bite & forgot that I should have covered it with a band-aid before entering the river. Ofcourse, it is too late, because the fish have pecked the bruise open.
I am reminded of the 'Fish pedicure' that's offered by some beauty parlours (wellness centres)
in Chennai. They basically have a big bowl of water with fish in it & you put your legs in it for
30-60 minutes. The fish peck away at your dead skin and supposedly make your feet skin younger. Don't know how much they charge for it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they charged anything between 500 & 1000 bucks for this pedicure, depending on how upscale the centre is.
And back home, all you need to do is sit in the water and let the fish do the work for free. Just ensure that you do not have any bruises on your legs. Next time around, I should bring along
a chair so that my wife can sit on the shore and have a pedicure done, while me and my son
thrash around in the water.
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