1, 2, 3, ONCE I CAUGHT A FISH ALIVE: an allegorical take on racism faced by people from Northeast India.

(This article appeared in Aaghaaz- a youth magazine to create a democratic space for new generation)


Have you ever gone for fishing? Nope? Well, it takes a lot of patience, fine tool and yes, you should know whether the river or the pond has fish in it. I once went for big sea fishing with a hope of catching lots of fishes small, large, extremely large but little did I know that it had sharks in it. Most of the sharks, as you know, are carnivores but the story is not about sharks, it is about a fish which I once caught alive.

That day after an hour of waiting a big yellow fish came under my hook, what stunt me was unlike other fishes it had slanted eyes.

I took it out from the hook and suddenly it yelled, ‘Let go, let go.’

Awestruck I said, ‘Wonder! You can talk.’

‘Obviously!’ Replied the fish.

‘No, it’s no obvious, a fish cannot talk. You are a magical fish.’ Anyone in my position could have said that.

‘Lady, you don’t know anything about me, drop me in the sea and I’ll tell you everything from the start,’ he was making an awesome offer.

Trusting yet doubting, I dropped the fish.

Thus, the fish began its tale, ‘This sea is big very big, and so they are varieties of fishes in it. I belong to slanted eyes and yellow in colour school; hundreds of years ago we came from a distant sea and settled here. Everything was going smooth until a group of sharks who are of course in dominant number started bullying fishes from our school. They mocked at our morphology and they are intolerant towards the seaweeds we eat, making us wonder where they got such superiority complex.’

‘Oh, that’s sad.’ It was indeed sad.

He continued, ‘So much was the annoyance that we started speaking out languages which could be universally understood.’

‘All the languages of the world?’ I inquired. 

‘Yes, language that speaks of asserting rights,’ the tone of utter confidence filled my ears.

I posed, ‘Sharks are such nuisance.’

‘I have forgotten to make it clear that not all sharks are a nuisance, some of them are cool set, and some of them have even joined our cause,’ the fish corrected.

‘That’s a good thing,’ I was happy.

‘Yes, but the picture is not optimistic, the majority of the sharks belong to the group that wears the crown of darkness and does not want to blaze it out.’

I asked, ‘So what’s your plan? By now you folks must have a plan?’

‘Yes, we have a plan; pray that it will be successful,’ His voice deepened making me respect their idea.

‘I have already started praying,’ I was honest.

The setting sun cast its rays on every word of the fish, ‘Our school is going to be united, so truly united that combined we will turn into a dragon, this sea dragon will blow fire out from the nostrils and burn them down.’

‘Burn them into ashes?’ I was taken aback,

‘Yeah, not kill them, though, I mean, just burning their ignorance and hate towards us,’ the fish glimmered.  

‘Will it be possible? Sounds to me more like a distant dream, sort of fairy tale,’ I did not mean to discourage the fish but could not help in speaking out my mind.

‘Come on, we made it possible to talk like you ‘human’, so it is not impossible to try and make them see that the sea is so wide and they are not the only swimmers here.’

‘I am really inspired by your courage. Can I be of any help?’

‘Thanks but the battle is ours, in case you want to help then you can spread our story to your world.’

‘Sure, I’ll do that.’ It was the least I could offer.

‘Now, apart from giving me a sympathetic look, why don’t you go and tell the story,’ that was a sentence filled with lots of sense.

‘Sure,’ I gave my word.

‘Go, tell your world, go now…,’ the fish’s voice echoed and is echoing till today.

And here I am writing about the conversation I had with a brave yellow fish with slanted eyes.