Uncle Ken, Aunt Ruby and I (Ruskin) decided to go for a camping trip in the mountains near Shimla. We started off early in the morning hoping to reach by mid-afternoon but the bus we were seated in got a flat tire!
Uncle Ken sighed in exasperation. After a few minutes the bus driver came back into the bus and said in relief “Only the bottom part is flat, the top part is fine”. Uncle Ken and I looked at each other and laughed silently, while Aunt Ruby snorted at the driver’s foolishness and rested her head against the window.
When we reached, Uncle Ken wanted to go canoeing, so we put on our life jackets and got into the canoe and started paddling into the lake, when we got far enough, we decided to stop and just enjoy the view, suddenly the canoe started moving violently and Uncle Ken shouted “Help Ruskin, HELP” I turned behind to look and saw that a huge fish had jumped out of the water and was writhing in Uncle Ken’s lap, it had also got a hold of Uncle Ken’s finger. Uncle Ken looked terrified but the sight was so funny that I just sat there and laughed.
Uncle had started to turn blue but the fish still hadn’t plopped back into the water. Then Uncle gave one last loud scream and the fish who probably thought the whole mountain had come crashing, hurriedly plopped back into the lake.
I looked at Uncle Ken still unable to control my laughter and said “I thought you had rowed for Oxford in the Varsity Boat race Uncle” referring to the times he had lied about having rowed for Oxford.
–ARATRIKA BISWAS
