A Fish in Warm Waters: A Potpourri of Engaging Tales

Review by Anindya Borgohain

‘A Fish in Warm Waters’ is the somewhat cryptic and intriguing title of Atanu Kumar Chowdhury’s maiden book, which contains a collection of his writings on a wide range of topics. The author wears many hats—he is an academician, a former journalist, an ex-cricketer, a diehard sports enthusiast, an avid traveller, and a keen photographer—and his writings reflect his diverse interests. For the sake of homogeneity, the book has been divided into six distinct categories, each of which contains articles of similar nature. The first category is called ‘Random Musings’, and as the name suggests, it includes essays and anecdotes on random topics, mostly based on the author’s own experiences and his keen observations of the world around him. This section contains his musings on such disparate subjects as his fearful encounter with a feline stranger (A Night with Kitty), the travails of watching television in the early eighties (Traumatic Vision), and the memorable experience of buying fish from the famous fish market of Guwahati’s Uzan Bazar (A Fish in Warm Waters). Chowdhury’s prose and distinct style of storytelling make ordinary, mundane subjects come alive and leave the readers with a warm afterglow. In the section called ‘Pondering Thoughts’, he deals with issues and events affecting our society and also reminisces about his associations with Pragjyotish College (where he taught economics for more than three decades), the National Cadet Corps, and the iconic Kumar Bhaskar Natya Mandir, a century-old theatre hall in which Jyoti Prasad Agarwala staged ‘Joymoti’, the first Assamese movie, in 1935.

His passion for travel finds expression in the section titled ‘Exotic Journeys’, which is also the most voluminous among the five sections, perhaps indicative of his predilection for discovering new places and making new friends. Although Chowdhury has travelled far and wide across the globe, he focuses mainly on our neighbouring countries, from Bangladesh to Bhutan to Myanmar and even Afghanistan, a country which he hasn’t actually been to but only vicariously travelled through the words of the intrepid French journalist and photographer Didier Lefevre from his book, ‘The Photographer: into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders’. Likewise, Chowdhury’s vivid and imaginative writings also transport his readers to these beautiful and not-so-faraway lands, about which we yet seem to know so little. In another section, he also writes about ‘Rare Personalities That Inspire’, which include prominent public personalities and also people who might not have been as widely known but whose contributions to their respective fields have been immense. For example, not many in Assam, especially those from the present generation, would have heard of Nagendra Narayan Das (A Fiercely Independent Assamese), who had qualified for the prestigious ICS interview in London in 1929, but could not appear for the same because his father couldn’t afford to send him. He then joined the state civil service and rose to be a very senior officer in the state administration; however, he resigned from the service at the young age of forty-two because his concerns about the illegal infiltration from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) were not taken seriously by the government! The immigration problem, which caused an upheaval in Assam from the late seventies to the mid-eighties and continues to haunt the state till date, was foreseen by Nagendra Narayan Das more than seven decades ago! He was also the first person from the North East to contest the presidential election in 1957.

The section, ‘In the Arena’, has been devoted to sports, Chowdhury’s one abiding passion in life. A particularly interesting piece is How a Field Was Saved 33 Years Ago, where he narrates the efforts of the members of Latasil United Club to protect the prominent playground from being used for purposes other than sports. Over the years, playgrounds and open spaces in the city are vanishing rapidly as construction activities have usurped most of them, and in this context, the endeavours of a few brave and dedicated persons (Chowdhury is one of them) to save a playground for the future generation are truly inspiring. The concluding section, ‘From a Reader’s Pen, contains letters written by him to various newspapers over the years.

A Fish in Warm Waters is much more than a mere coffee table book. It showcases the author’s versatility as he deals with a wide range of topics with equal aplomb, and his lucid style and interesting anecdotes laced with gentle humour keep the readers absorbed throughout. If one has to nitpick, it’s that some of the pieces included in the book have lost their relevance—the book is a compendium of authors’s writings spread over several decades, some already published in various newspapers and journals—and a few other essays might not be of everyone’s interest. Also, in the last section, he has included some letters to various newspapers voicing his unabashed and unequivocal support for the Assam agitation of the early eighties of the last century, a position he might not want to stick to in hindsight. But overall, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable book and surely marks the definitive arrival of Chowdhury as a writer of promise.

(Anindya Borgohain was among the first batch of journalists to join ‘The Sentinel’ when the paper was launched in the early eighties of the last century. He was the first sports correspondent for the fledgling newspaper.)