The Little Fish

My uncle who is three years elder to my mother was getting married while I was in third. As a part of the same, my grandfather decided to build another floor to his house(my home). Rooms were being painted, floors being tiled, Grandmother started planting flowers in the yard, our dogs were moving out, Amma started wearing churidar, Mithu got his cycle, I got a new study table and a geometry box. We were a family of seven back then,our home was never silent, for a long time I thought you only get a room to yourself once you're married. Uncle being the one who is getting married was privileged to move upstairs, his was the only room with an attached bathroom. While he went out during the day to get stuffs for his room, I would sneak in to play in the shower. I would run to Mithu saying "yo, we can make rain inside uncles bathroom". The bathroom we had downstairs was attached to the well, while my mom sat in one corner washing clothes that the marriage brought home, I'll be sitting inside a bucket full of water pretending it to be sea, soaps as fishes, and my mother as momma fish. Amma would cover my hair with a plastic bag and tell me "swim to me little fish". I would splash my hands in water, make sounds I thought fishes make and by then Amma would get up and take me from the bucket, and say "momma fish saved you". She'd wrap the towel around my waist and I'd wrap my arms around her neck and walk to the yard and leave the cloths there to dry. 

I use my uncles room now. Everything as a child I thought marriage brings is already mine. The room, the curtains, the blanket, the cupboard.. I bath in the shower everyday, washing stains of adulthood off my skin, remembering how as a child I thought I was a fish.

- Megha