I used to live on the surface and I loved living there....I used to rule the surface and I used to feel as if I belonged there..I used to splash the water without a care in the world.
But one day they saw me...they saw me carefree and happy. They decided to pull me down to the bottom, I struggled, I fought against them, I came up but they were too strong, they pulled me back down, I again fought and came up but they again pulled me back down. I chocked on salt water but I fought.They did not even allow me to come up for a breath of air. I fought and I fought with all the might but they were too strong.I choked and I choked but it did not effect them. I could not breathe but they seemed content. When they were not looking, when they loosened their grip on me without thinking, I came up to the surface to breathe, to live. But this enraged them and they tightened their grip on me even more. Till a time came when I was on my last breath and then that was also used up.....
Little by little my chest filled with salt water, the salt burned my insides and made them raw.It hurt. It hurt so much that I prayed that it would be over, all over soon. But no, I still lived..in pain and in misery.No word can truly define the agony I felt and yet I lived.The pain ate at me from the inside. I screamed and screeched but to no avail. I closed my eyes in hope that the pain would cease...but my hopes were empty just as my life.Every minute of the day I felt that I could live no longer, that enough was enough, that I would die soon. But still I lived. Like this hours, days, years passed. Till the time I lost count of time.The pain ate at me and I still lived.I felt like I was in a purgatory..waiting for the judgement day to arrive.
One morning I opened my eyes and realized that there was no more pain or maybe I had just developed a resistance to the pain and it was still there. But this news relieved me and I opened my eyes in a long time. My eyes pricked in the salt water but I could still see around me.I was alone, oh yes, very alone. A solitary figure in the midst of blue waters.A speck in the universe that surrounded me.
This scared me and scared as I was, I opened my mouth as normal humans would, to take a gulp of air but what filled my mouth and throat was salt water. But for once this water did not burn inside me, on the contrary it felt quite natural. I thought I was going to choke again and in fear I closed my eyes,but minutes passed and I didn't choke..I felt my chest rising and falling like it does for a human while they breathe air, I knew that there was no way I could breathe in water, but I did not choke either. So slowly I opened my eyes and looked at my chest which rose and fell calmly.Something pulled and pushed at my neck...it slightly irritated me so I touched it.My fingers touched something that felt like as flap over an empty...space? I could not think what it was for a while and I looked back at my chest which rose calmly and fell calmly and then a revelation dawned on me that I had undergone a transformation...oh yes a transformation...all that pain I had faced had not gone wasted but my body had metamorphosed while I had shriveled in agony.I had now developed gills!
Oh yes! I could breathe under water and I felt happy at least I could survive. But yet I felt melancholy...I felt scared at the same time in this vast wilderness all alone.Having to face what I had never before anticipated.
I looked around but unaccustomed to the salt water my vision was blurred.I could not see clearly.I turned round and round trying to see what was around me. While struggling through this a school of fish suddenly came up to me and encompassed me, they were coming at such a top speed that the hit me and it hurt and when they tried to disentangle themselves from me they tried to use their teeth as their weapons and I screamed in agony. Tears poured out of my eyes and mixed in the salt water. I stretched my neck and closed my eyes in hopes that the pain would subside soon.
And then as the school of fish passed away the agony also subsided and I slowly lowered my neck and opened my eyes. This time I again shook with surprise, I could see everything clearly, down to the smallest speck in water and I was over joyed with this revelation.
I started to enjoy my surroundings, I started to see the beauty in the salt water, the various hues of blue looked beautiful to me. My skin grew slippery and scaly in order to live in a better condition at sea.I developed fins to help me swim. My feet and hands became webbed so that I could swim in a more adept manner.
I started to discover my surroundings, excavate the life around me and I noticed colors. Oh! brilliant colors...I discovered such hues that I had never noticed before. I again started to enjoy life, I swam far and wide in the seas of knowledge. I again started to dream, dreams that I thought I would be able to write, dreams I thought I will be able to achieve. There came a time when a smile became permanently plastered on my face. I delved into the oceans of Shakespeare, Shelly, Keats, Chaucer, Shaw, Tolstoy Dostoevsky,Iqbal, Dickens, Mitchell, Conrad, Jinnah, Coelho.....And I was happy once again.My eyes shone as they used to on the surface.I started to swim with a confident thrust just as I had walked on the surface with my head held up high.I strove to belong to water and was about to achieve it.
But then they saw me, they saw me happy and full of dreams, about to belong to a place that I had been forced to come to against my will. And they became angry.They tried various things to make me miserable but nothing worked, I became too slippery to be held in misery, I was always able to squirm. But they were much more stronger than me and they understood more than I did.
This time they tried pulling me back to the surface.I struggled against it once more but they were too strong.
They pulled me back to the surface, but this time I had webbed feet and no lungs,I used to live on the surface, but this time I died......
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