If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And—which is more—you'll be a Man my son!

—Rudyard Kipling

Swummering

Swummering (n.) : Going to a public swimming pool in summer on a weekend.

I've come up with this word to explain the blunder I committed this Saturday morning.

You see, basically, I'm not a very nostalgic person, especially wrt childhood memories and stuff I'd done as a kid etc. But as an exception to that, one of the strongest and most awesome memories I have of my school days is that of going to the swimming pool with my bro and/or my cousin. I learnt the trade in the Saraswathipuram Swimming pool in Mysore, and my cousin and bro were as clinical and technical as possible in imparting me the knowledge of how to survive in water.

After that, most of my summer mornings were spent in either the Jaynagar swimming pool or the Basvangudi one. It used to be an event preceded by meticulous planning. How much money is needed for entry into the pool, bus charge to and fro, what clothes to be taken, what time should we get there to avoid the humongous queue that'd form outta nowhere!

Forward some 10 odd years, and on Friday evening I get the sudden whim to go back to the pool where I'd spent many enjoyable mornings, playing games like who-stays-under-the-longest, find-the-stone-on-the-pool-floor etc Had no clue/expectation of what lay in store for me :)

Woke up at 6.30, got ready (wear swimming trunks and wear just a shorts and t shirt, so that strippin off time is minimal at the pool...Wasn kidding about the planning part) Found a pretty long queue, and as I was entering saw a rather freshly painted sign on the wall which said 'Only 200 people allowed in a batch' with 200 in bold letters. In the next hour, I'd remember this declaration and wonder about its verity....

Went to the counter, where the dude in front of me said to the cashier maga 'one full, erd half'. One mental chuckle later it was my turn. I asked the cahsier maga for a locker and one ticket. You see, I'd planned it in such a way that, post swimming, I'd also take home some breakfast for everybody from this pristine and archaic restaurant in Basvangudi. So I'd gotten my wallet along, credit cards, DL, cash and the works. So I was made aware of the changing times rudely when cashier maga sharply reprimanded me by telling me to stop speaking gibberish and plainly tell him how many tickets I needed. I politely relaid my query for some security for my belongings. cashier maga didn't seem to be having the best of mornings. He gave me a look which translated to @@$#%@#%@# and said 'locker illa'. I got in with close to 2k cash on me.

As I rushed in to the pool alongwith my otherbrothers, I seriously began doubting if the pool was big enough. You see, the pool isn't evenly used up by the people entering in a batch. In most cases, ppl coming to a public pool can be categorized into:

1. Kids who are chronic divers. They get semi naked, dive into the pool, get back out, dive into the pool, get.....
2. Kids who are learning, with their parents. You'll see the dad holding the kid afloat and asking kid to flap his legs in the water, and the kid crying out.
3. Other kids who know how to swim but are confined to the 3 to 4 foot range. This is the most populated area of the pool. Btw, there's a sign on the wall which says 'shallow end. No diving'...This sign is probably the most hydrated (and violated) in the whole pool..........
4. Serious swimmers...They know breaststroke, backstroke,avoid-other-dudes-in-the-mess stroke. Yevrything i say!
5. Me.

I'm the 26 year old guy who frowns at the chronic divers, cos I fear they'll break my back as I set out to attempt to swim across.
I'm the 26 year old who'll want to swim as much as possible but will struggle to swim across the breadth of the pool in a straight line, cos of all the obstacles.
I'm the 26 year old who'll want to indulge himself in a dive but will probably hurt himself cos he doesn't know the right technique and hasn't gone swimmin in a few years :)
I'm the 26 year old who won't go swummering again.

Rescue

murjhaae gul ke paas, jaise bahaar ki baanhen
mere paas, vaise hi, phaili hain yaar ki baanhen
thaam ke inko phir bhi sambhal na sakun main
dekho ye mere bandhe haath................