A lenghthy blog!!-My swimming class with "J"

"When was the last time you did something for the first time"...a Great one liner,I take this kinda of catchy one-liners very seriously and by doing so I end up in some serious trouble most times.

Trouble came in form of my friend "J".This happened in July this year."J" called me up on a sleepy Saturday afternoon and said "Machan...I am planning to go to swimming class neeyum variya?". Most of my friends are like me, they need co-passengers :-) whenever they attempt a new thing. I said I am not that interested, J requested me to spare some time at least to accompany him to enquire about the class details next day.I obliged and that was my first mistake.

He arrived promptly next day morning in his car, we went to velacherry which is some 15 kms from our house. But for J distance doesnot matter, wanted only that swimming pool because according to him, its the best place for swimming in chennai. J is kind of of person who always wants best in everything[he got a shoe for Rs9000,when his monthly salary was just 4000 few years back,I guess you can understand his urge for"The best" things from this]

On our way to the pool,he slowly roped me in to the idea of swimming by giving lectures how swimmingis absolutely necessary incase of a Tsunami ,how swimming improves ones physique drastically which in turn make gals fall for you etc etc... He almost convinced me that the swimming is the most essential thing required next to food in this planet.

The swimming pool was awesome and J looked at me and I could see that he was implying "Did I not tell you this is the best pool man!!". We met the coach,he said the class had already begun 2 days back and the next batch is after a month.I was greatly relieved after hearing that, because at bottom of my heart I didn't want to learn swimming, but I put on a disappointing face for J's sake. But to my utter dismay and disbelief the coach dropped a bombshell the next minute "if you ppl wanna join now ,you can,as the class has just begun 2 days back and you can catch up be practicing harder". J pushed me aside and gave a pep talk "dei we need to do this da,only two days has gone,if we practice hard we could make it". I was confused and said " practica!! I don't know anything abt swimming da". Sensing what's going in mind J played it well "I also do not know ABC of swimming da, do not worry I feel we can make it". This pep talk and the one liner at the very top of this blog confused me and I nodded my head,that was my second mistake.

The coach hurriedly slipped in two swim wear to us and almost pushed us into the pool.It was large pool about 5 1/2 feet depth.There were around 10-15 ppl practicing and some of them seemed to look at us sympathetically for our brave decision of joining the third day of class directly.Most of the guys were practicing floating for 2 days now,coach gave a brief 5 min demo about "floating" to us.From the first look of it,I clearly understood that its goanna be very difficult for me to catch up 2 days class in 2 hours.But surprisingly J was composed and said "lets start" , we both started out floating together and next moment I drank half a liter of water and touched the floor of the pool and came up and was thinking that J would have had the same fate. But J,the B*****d had crossed half the pool by floating. In fact he was doing better than our 2 day old seniors in our batch. I was shocked becoz he had lied to me about his swimming skill earlier. Further the fear of going a to be lone back bencher in the swimming class for next 15 days was unimaginable to me . J came back with a smile and said "I don't know how, but I am able to float in the first attempt da". I really wanted to kick his ass, had it not beena public place i swear i would have done it.

That day started my swimming ordeal for the next 20 days,most tiring days of my life.I was in a drowsy state for rest of the day after swimming.Swimming, believe me, is one of the best cure for insomnia and I don't know why doctors are not recommending it.

Though with encouragement of J and my effort I was able to float next day, but found swimming definitely not my cup of tea. And more than swimming, the weariness after that, killed my productivity at work.I was eagerly waiting for the last day of the class.

I don't remember whether its 8th or 9th day of the class , coach took us all to a bigger pool 8-9 feet depth and started demonstarted us the diving. J as usual pepped me up with a one liner "Dei everybody has fear but ppl who don't show it out are called courageous person". I was coaxed again. Jumped in to the pool real flat and water banged on to my abdomen, Ouch....it really hurts!! . But it was fun for next few days except I felt more tired now and I was also very happy as the class is nearing is end.

Just a day before the last class , the incident happened. Coach had increased the distance we are going to swim for the day. Normally we would dive in and just two strokes we would reach the pool side.Today the distance was around 10 meters diagnoally across the pool.and the depth of the pool is 9 feet.It was tough and I requested J, who was standing before me in the queue to just have an eye on me till I reach the other end safely.For which he nodded his head reassuringly. My turn came and I delayed it for few mins to make sure J reaches the other end so that he could help me incase of any trouble. By that time I had lost faith in the coach , as he was more interested in coaching ladies and gals:-). So my only savior incase of any mishap is J.

I jumped instead of diving as usual, slowly came up and coach who was satisfied turned to the next person. I was slowly swimming towards the destination. And suddenly lost control and started drowning. Since we were swimming diagnolly across the pool, going back would not serve any purpose and the shore(?) of the pool was not nearby. I went down and gulped few liters of pool water and no one was noticing me.I totally forgot the lessons learnt on the 15 days and started to do shake my hands and legs in an haphazard manner. Finally after a lot of struggle, after filling my stomach with huge quantity of water and almost losing my consciousness. I reached the side of of the pool and came out crawling .To my utter shock no one had noticed my flirtations with with death not even J. After regaining my thoughts I was looking around for J, who was in a serious discussion about how his previous dive with a guy. I really wanted to push him down in to the pool and hold his head under water but was totally drained and shaken by my near death experience. Meanwhile J came to me and said "dei you did well da", which really made me to loose my cool and said "Yes I did well, that it almost killed me idiot". I told him that I am quitting the class . He started with his pep talks and his theory that no one can drown in 9 feet wateretc..etc..But for me "my something for the first time" ended just there. and strictly told him that I cant come to the class again. Though I got a certificate from the class, I did not get in to a swimming pool since then.J attended the next class alone and completed the course successfully.

I did not meet J after that day for 2 weeks.Out of the blue, he called me one Saturday and said "Macha,I am planning to learn Hindi,neeyum variya?".I paused for a moment and said "Yes..!!"...


Hummm........ somethings never change!!!