As I recline and write in my room now, the sun outside is in its full might. The summer heat's trailer show promises an uncomfortable season ahead again and made me go back to my childhood swimming days. My father used to take me to the township's swimming club every summer evening since the time I didn't even knew how to swim. The first object there which attracted me was the water fountain. Invariably, after reaching the club I would run straight to the fountain and sit close to it. The water would gush out falling over me and I would be jumping with joy. All these childish trysts with the fountain and pool water underwent a massive evolution one day when my brother accompanied me to the swimming club. He took me to the mid of the 25 m pool and forcibly separated my hands from the supporting side rods designed for kids like me to perfect their leg strokes. For a few seconds I could see nothing. My only focus was to breathe properly. By the time I thrusted myself back to the surface of the pool, my brother swam towards me smiling. I was angry. I refused to talk to him but then he quipped, 'Hey, you now know how to swim.' I beamed with a newly acquired confidence and swam the entire length of the pool with my brother before heading back to home together. For the remaining 10 years of my stay in Durgapur, I had been a regular in the pool. The joy of plunging into the pool waters in the scorching summer months then couldn't ever get matched to the calm days spent interiors with a super efficient AC machines now.
