My story begun in the muddy waters of Amazon. I didn’t like my first home inside a small shell. I always thought about what’s outside that shell? Will I be able to see my mom? How she will be? Is she going to like me? How many siblings I will have? Is there any other shell outside this one? If there is how long it will take me to get out of it? And yet how long it will take me to get out of this one. Being alone that’s all I could do. Just think and wait. Expecting and hoping for the best
Walah I was out swimming around in the muddy water with bunch of other fishes I may call my siblings. A big fish was keeping us all together I may assume my mother. I don’t remember that I called her “mama” the first time I saw her or even we suppose to have relatives. Life in the river wasn’t of my type. I wanted to explore, swim as far as I can make new friends, discover new places. My mom warned me about Piranhas, our lethal nemesis. She told us a story about her friend who some how got alone and got eaten up. Being curious I always asked her about where she has been? Is there any interesting place she saw? Any dangerous species she encountered? Is there any other place better than this muddy water? She told me about the ocean and sharks. She even said that sharks are worse than Piranhas and I wondered why? I wanted to go out of the muddy water, swim across the ocean see some sharks may be some of them will not be the way my mom told me may some could be my friends
At last I was able to live on my own. I lived my own life. Hunted for myself and lived for myself. I wasn’t selfish though I had many friends. I realized that’s the way it was. You have to live for yourself and you have to fight for yourself but the most important part is that you have to be yourself and that’s what I was doing.
I thought I had a life until I was caught. They pulled me out of the water. Ofcourse I had seen sky many times the sun, the stars, the moon, the light but being outside the water was completely different. It was like I was loosing the grip of my life, my breathing intensifying, my fin splashing, my whole body was aching. Being an explorer it was a new experience for me but wasn’t the one I wanted to have again. I fought hard but in the end I had to give up and I was out of the place where I lived, away from the people I loved. I don’t know what to expect next is this the end of the world? Or the end of myself? And then I was in the water again but it wasn’t the water I grew up in and it wasn’t big enough than a river let alone an ocean did I even saw the whole ocean? Infact I can barely swim but I was thankful that I was alive. Soon I was joined by others some of my type some of different. It went on until there wasn’t enough space for me to swim but I was glad that still I can breath. Gosh being positive sucks big time but that’s the way I was
From there we were shifted another place still small but with more fishes. I heard they call it a tank. At last I found myself in this tank where people come to see me like I am a celebrity or something. Sooner I realized that it isn’t an ordinary tank where people use to buy fishes and keep them as their pets. It’s a tank inside a big store people call grocery store in a small space people call sea food department where they sell fresh fish ready to be eaten. Looking back at my life I realized that I ended up in the same place where it all begins “a shell”. The only difference is that I became alive when I got out of the first one and I will be dead if I will get out of this one. Now may I ask how long it will take question to myself?
Note: This is a guest post by my friend, Muneeb.
