July 2, 2011

The recent article in the Daijiworld (dated June 16 2011) titled "Mangalore : Four year old girl drowns at Mulky" reporting that Atmika got drowned in an overflowing canal at Badagahitlu, Bapparanadu near Mulky, prompted me to write the following real story, which I witnessed and was part of, during my recent holidays in Mangalore. Before I narrate my story, for the benefit of those who had not read the above news article, the gist of it is that Guruprasad, the maternal uncle of Atmika (4-year-old) and Kritika (2-year-old) had entered the canal to take bath. The girls were playing in the water sitting on the edge of the canal near the spot where he was bathing. Both children suddenly fell into the water, but Kritika alone could be saved. What a tragedy to take place!

Now, reverting to my story on the subject, my month-long holidays in Mangalore were coming to an end, and it was the evening of May 26, 2011. I was at my nephew's home at Muddadi, Venur (my parental home as well), having the afternoon rest, and it was about 4.30 pm, when two of my grand-nephews (Anush - 11 and Avy - 6) came up to my room and woke me up from my deep sleep, and almost shouted "Abba, Abba, please get up, we are going up to the river for swimming and we want you to come along".

While I was a bit annoyed for waking me up from my slumber, I did not show it outwardly, but told them politely that I could not join since I had to catch a bus for Bangalore late that night, as the first leg of my return journey to Sydney, and that I had packing and other things to do. But the boys would not listen to me – they went on to say that they needed me badly since both of them did not know swimming, and the other five of their cousins who were going along with them did know either. They also mentioned that three of their uncles and two of their aunties were also accompanying them, but only one of their uncles knew swimming out of that entire lot. They further expressed a desire that they wanted to take a few swimming lessons from me since they knew I was a good swimmer.

Yes, I knew swimming right from my childhood, as I grew up on my family farm where I was exposed to the water constantly - learning swimming was sort of mandatory for me and my brothers in those years, to cope up with all the unpredictable monsoon rains and the subsequent flood water regularly inundating our rice fields and surrounding areas, every now and then.

At this stage, you might start wondering from where all these uncles, aunties and cousins etc came along? Let me explain. Earlier that day, there was an anniversary mass arranged by my nephew at the local church for the deposed soul of my brother which was attended by close friends and relatives. While most of the people had left for their homes after the mass and the ceremony, a few close relatives and their children had stayed behind.

The mere mention by my grand-nephews that they did not know swimming and that they wanted to take a few lessons from me, and the fact they were virtually begging me to join them, got me mellowed. I thought for myself for a while, there were also the water safety issues involved as well – what if these boys went to the river unaccompanied by the responsible adults, and in the event something goes wrong, etc. After all, I thought my packing and other work can surely wait. Moreover, it was a hot and humid day throughout, and it would be nice to have a cool dip.

More importantly, however, the two past unpleasant events that took place in my family about 50 years ago suddenly flashed to my mind – one was fatal, and the other was near-fatal, both water-related. In the first case, one of my nieces, a 13-year-old, while chasing the cattle which had encroached on our farm from the neighbourhood, accidentally fell into an open and unfenced well, which was filled with water, and being unable to swim, and also as there was no one around to rescue her, drowned.

In the second instance, I had saved the life of a toddler from drowning. I was about 18 years then (yes, you guessed my present age right – I am 68 now!). During summer time, it was the usual practice on every Sunday afternoon to go to the large stream that ran adjacent to our farm for swimming and washing clothes. So, one such afternoon, my elder sister, her 3-year-old son, my two younger brothers, and I had gone to the usual reservoir. While my sister was busy washing the clothes, my brothers and I were active, diving into the pool and swimming. I had finished one such diving and was just coming up to the surface, when I heard a shrill and panicking cry from my sister, who shouted at me, that her toddler had also dived after me and was still in the water. As you have imagined and guessed, my sister did not know swimming, since in those days, (why only those years, even now I suppose) swimming by girls was considered to be taboo, and not encouraged by any means, and my sister was no exception. It took me a second to realise what was the hue and cry about, until I felt something on my leg – the little chap was clinching to my leg and trying to come up from the water. In a flash, I fished out the young fellow and brought him to safety, much to the relief and joy to all of us, especially to my sister. Even though he had taken in quite a bit of water, thankfully, he was out of danger after some time. Earlier, I was completely unaware that my young nephew had followed me to the diving stand and had dived after me as well! Children, especially the toddlers are so unpredictable in their behaviour, one need to keep a constant watch on them all the time! 
 
So, without thinking further for a moment, I told my grand-nephews that I would join them, and later I was so glad that I did, as you would realise as well, when you finish reading this story.

It took us only five minutes to reach the river in two vehicles, as it was only 1 km away from our residence. The entire group formed 14 in total, consisting 4 of my nephews and 3 of my nieces (all adults) and 5 of my grand-nephews/nieces, and also another young boy, a friend and classmate of my grand-nephew (Joy), who was a guest with us. All the teenagers were in the age group 6 to 14 years, and except for one, none of them knew swimming, as also out of the eight adults, only two of us knew swimming, viz. me and one of my nephews.

We started looked for an ideal spot for swimming. As we were approaching the end of the summer and still no sign of monsoon rains, the river was virtually dry and had run out of water, except for a few beds and ponds of water, here and there. Finally, we came across a suitable pool of size of about 30 metres in length and 15 metres in breadth, one side being shallow and deep of only about 2 to 3 feet, which was just suitable for the learners and novices, and the other side quite deep of about 4 to 6 feet, just perfect for an experienced swimmer.

It was about 5.30 pm then, and was already getting dark, and we had not much time left. So without wasting any more time, I straightaway mustered the boys and girls to form a line and standing in front of them imparted them theoretically, the basic swimming lessons – explaining and demonstrating them how to hold the breath inside the water for a longer period of time, different types and styles of swimming and strokes, and owing to the limitation of the time available, I concentrated only on free style swimming - how to hold one's head and the body on water, how to push your right and left hands, alternatively, into the water and pulling the water towards you, and at the same time kicking your legs vigorously etc. I also clearly explained and practically demonstrated to them by walking and swimming along the shallow and deeper parts of the pool, and spelt out in no uncertain terms that they should stick to the shallow area only, and never ever to venture out to the deeper side.

I could easily visualise the impatience and eagerness amongst the youngsters to get into the water and engaged into real action, as they were least interested in my further lessons, so I cut short my induction programme, and we all straightaway got into the water. To our utter delight and joy, the water was tepid (slightly warm), and ideally suited for our venture – it was apparent the water had the telling effect on it from the hot and burning summer sun above.

It was a sheer joy and fun to watch the young teenagers wading through and jumping into the shallow water, splashing at each other, and a few of them trying out the swimming lessons that I had imparted to them earlier, and I was more than happy to watch them that they were confining to the shallow water, while myself and my nephew got involved in some serious swimming at the deeper end, and at the same time keeping a close watch on the youngsters.

This went on for a while, when I suddenly heard a loud alarming call from my grand-nephew Joy, he yelled out at me and pointed out to his friend, and said "Abba, Abba, my friend is in trouble and he is drowning! ". Luckily I was only 5 metres away from the boy and in a second raced up to him and lifted him out of the water. By then he had taken in quite a bit of water and he was finding difficult to breath. Still in the water, I held him on his stomach horizontally, tilting his head downwards and his legs upwards for a while, when he finally spewed out quite a bit of water that he had consumed, and finally he got his normal breath back. If just one or two seconds I was late, we had a real disaster at our hands! I heaved a sigh of relief and said a silent thanksgiving prayer for saving from such a calamity. All this while, my nephew was just stunned and a silent spectator, as he was far away from the scene, and could not help much.

When everything had cooled down and the things were normal, later that evening, I called the boy aside and asked him why he had drifted into the deeper side of the pool in spite of my strict instructions not to do so, and his cool answer was: "Abba, I was standing on a small stone and slipped to the wrong end".

Also, later that evening, Joy, my grand-nephew came to me and said: "Abba, you saved the life of my friend – thank you Abba!" While I was totally moved and humbled by his gesture, I straightaway retorted and said to him: "Joy, it is not that I saved your friend – in fact, you saved him – for, if you were not to alert me on time that your friend was in trouble, I would have definitely missed out – so, you are the real hero!".

Dear readers, the purpose of this article is not to take any credit, whatsoever I had done, to save this boy, (on the contrary I almost failed in my duties, in spite of my vast past experience and knowledge dealing with the children), but only to make aware to all parents and the adult guardians alike to always keep a close watch on their little ones. As said earlier, the children are very unpredictable in their action and movements, and it is all the more important that the adults should keep a watch all the time on them, especially when monitoring them with the water related activities. Also, now that the monsoon season is on full swing, and that water is everywhere, especially in the villages and countryside, it is all the more important for the parents to be extra careful.

Sadly, deaths like that of my teenage niece and the young girl like Atmika do always take place. I have quite a few other such water related accidents to relate as well, so also I am sure you readers, will have plenty - some are reported in the papers, while other go unnoticed. The point I am trying to make is that such deaths due to drowning take place mainly because of the victim's inability to swim. I am very passionate about kids' learning swimming at an early age – both boys and girls. I would, therefore, urge and implore all parents out there, please teach your children swimming at an early age, even if it is going to cost you some amount of money – it is worth. I tell you, I taught my two boys swimming by the age they were 5, and even though I had to spend a substantial amount towards their lessons, which I could ill afford then, I was glad that I did!.

I would even go to the extent of recommending every school in India – both elementary and high school – to make swimming lessons to their students compulsory. They could either build their own swimming pools or take the children to the council/municipal pools. While it is pleasing to see that India has made so much progress in various fields, sadly, it is lagging far behind when it comes to swimming and other water related activities. It is therefore, high time that the government seriously look into this matter, and start building a number of swimming pools, for use by the general public. Remember every life saved is a precious one, especially that of a child.