For the first time in my life, I saw the twinkling and vivacious gold colored fish, in neatly arranged spotless aquariums in the shop of grouchy Dorai swamy, when I was lazily pedalling on my new rally cycle through the outskirts of a small village near Kayamkulam, along with my younger brother, during our summer holidays, while I was waiting for my 7th standard results. It was really wonderful to see those tiny trawls actively searching for the something underneath the water while the small dolls in the shapes of fishermen and turtles were seeping bubbles from its mouth in rhythmic manner.
Very next day, we went along with our father to the shop of Dorai to buy a fresh water aquarium. To our surprise he presented us with the best aquarium available in that shop and also bought few pairs of medium sized gold and angel fish. Just about to leave the shop I noticed a beautiful silvery blue fish with pearl colored thread-like long fins, in another tank which was also aesthetically arranged. On being asked, Dorai introduced that magnificent fish as “Gourami” and enlightened about the mystical beauty he can add to the aquarium. Fortunately, we were able to become the proud owners of the stunning “Gourami” also, but miserably failed to notice the sneaky grin of Dorai, while he was packing the beauty for us. We bought few packets of fish food, a red colored paper-ball pellets, to feed them regularly and left the shop with thrilling mind.
It took some hours for us to arrange the aquarium but it came out well, though it was not as gorgeous as seen in the shop of Dorai. The gold fish and the angels were admirably active and cute as they swam across the tank while the elegant Gourami was very silent and put himself to a corner, as he was not happy with the arrangements. After setting the aquarium, we spent some quality time in front of it, and fed them lavishly as the gold fish's seems to be frantically in hunger. Before going to bed, we served another handful of pellets to the hungry fish and switched off the aquarium lights.
Next day morning we woke up to see an extremely cloudy aquarium with very poor visibility and could hardly see the fish's in the tank. To a great shock I noticed that all the gold fish had lost their beautiful tails and few angels were gasping on top for getting some air. It was resembling a battle ground were everything is destroyed and everyone is injured. Horrifically, I found our elegant and beautiful gourami as hyper active and seen as busy in peeling off the fins of an angel !!. It was such a disappointing scene which I will never forget in my life. I profoundly recollected the astute smirk of Dorai and in flash of a second understood the reason for the same. Many years has passed from that point of life but I never left my passion on aquariums and even now I proudly possess a fresh water planted aquarium at my home.
During this pretty long period, I had learned more about different breeds of fish, their habitats, eating habits, coexisting breeds etc which had eventually helped to shape my professional career in a better manner. Following are the corporate lessons I had learned from fish.
One’s passion is another’s profession. So choose the right kind of business partner, who can educate you about the pros and cons of your passion to deal with rather than the one who cares only about his profits. Always educate your clients about the pros and cons of the decisions and advise them in timely manner. Don’t take them for granted and avoid looking for easy business.
It took me years to get well versed with the aquarium skills. Same is true in the case of any profession. It requires continuous and regular efforts to learn the skills to excel in anything.
Fish are tend to fight. So learn more about the behavior of each breeds and keep separate habitats for infighting breeds. When talking to your clients, understand their behavior pattern and respond according to their requirements. Keep their matters in confidential manner and take your clients into confidence.
Change the water regularly and maintain proper aeration. Like that, you have to strive to educate yourself about the recent developments and updates in your areas of practice and impart that learning to the well-being of your clients. It will surely pay off.
Maintain proper Ph levels and remove algae in regular intervals. As a professional you have to understand the areas of your functioning in deeper manner and learn about the technicalities of the same in regular manner. Learn to unlearn and relearn is a skill which you have to master in to excel in the profession.
Display it neatly and beautifully. If you have good knowledge about your areas of practice, keep yourselves updated and be courageous to share it with others. It will help you to shine better and make others shine.
Thanks to all the lovely fish I proudly possessed and I am grateful to all of them for the wonderful lessons they had taught me and I am paying homage to them for sacrificing their life to update my knowledge.
Bijoy P Pulipra
Picture courtesy : Disney