A STORY OF ALICE

=========================================uddalak banerjee

In a shadowy box lived alice.The box small and kept away from sunlight.Her fins were always
flapping as she stay afloat.When for the first time she was trapped in the box ,she felt the box to
be small.Like an inquisitive human infant, pure, timid and innocent, at times she used to touch
the sides of the container with her small gentle head and soon used to take it back fearing what
may lie on the otherside.What if from the otherside an octopas or a shark should immerge
!.WHat will she do then?but yet she tried hard out of pure natural instincts to look at the other
side of the box to know whether there too lived anyone she knew or like her. When at sea she
had seen many strange lands and creatures as they moved around in the depths of the sea ,playing
with sunlight all the way.She never knew what was home.But she had grown up with creatures
like her whom she never knew.Infact everyday in her group there used to be additions and
alterations in thousands.Every day the monstrous creatures of the sea would barge into their
group and eat away who ever that came into their path.When she was small she used to very
frightened of them.SHe wanted to live always.She wanted to see and explore the ever exciting
new world around her.The fallen pieces of a long lost ship near the bottom of the sea and the
shining pearls had always fascinated her.She wanted to touch them and play with them.Each time
that water entered her gills she used to breathe deep and silently.She used to enjoy the group
dances when the entire group used to dance around in a frenzied joy making a spectacle worth
beholding.The biggest asset of this frenzied joy was that it sparked a strange life into the
group.SOme times they made an 8 in form sometimes they made a 7 ..sometime some crystalline
solid which perhaps they themselves have never seen. Whenever the big shark would come to
attack the group making strange shapes would avoid contact.The sharks hungry and agitated used
to get annoyed very much then and frustrated too they would finally leave them alone for a while
only to return with its own group .She had seen their monstrous red eyes.

But here in the box things are silent but she missed sunlight and the chiroscuro of the abysmal
depths of her habitat.She always wished that she was never caught by the web that day when she
was caught forcefully by a group of fisherman near vancouver in north america.She never
wanted to come here in a box which was painfully small and the water too was different.She just
wanted to see the world , go places meet more and more new creatures who would not eat
her.She wanted to exist on her own.Shining light and the silence of the bottomless depths were
her favourites but quite paradoxically she never had been allowed to stay at a place for more than
an hour for the lurking predators soon made an unwanted entry.

Now in the box life had just stopped for her.She kept flapping her beautiful fins time and again
and saying loud ,"hello ..i am alice may i talk to you...".Each time that her blue fins flapped and
bubbles reached the top she had some hope for may be the one outside may be listening to her
and her words.At times for hours and days she used to stay at the same spot waiting for a
reply.But it never came.Her eyes were so much like humans and each time she moved her eyes
to look around she felt someone was watching.The water initially was stiffling but then she had
adjusted owing to her age and frequent change of places powered by her sense of adventure.IT
was less salty.She grew thinner owing to lack of proper food she loved sea worms which never
came here.IT was hard to breath in sweet water but after some struggle and time she had got used
to it.Here the water was warmer and environment was darker.

When alice was small her mother often used to say,"Alice never trust anyone ,and always stay in
a group".Alice had never seen her again.She had made so many friends
cleopetra,mary,miranda,jasmine.All were so nice ,so gentle.When she used to swim with jasmine
they used to wander slightly away from the group of millions each of whose name even she did
not know.She used to talk and talk and talk with jasmine.She wanted to go to strange places
where there pearls and wild red plants ,wild weeds and flaura of widest variety which blossomed
in the winter.She was timid but yet deep within she was playful.At times she used to envy
jasmine who was more eventful and more lively and often used to go alone detached from the
group.

Once when she and jasmine were swimming near the gulf of alaska,they were both attracted to a
pearl falling deep down on the floor of the sea.IT was shinning as if crying for a closer
look.Jasmine was swift and soon delved deep towards it.She was slow and hence followed suit at
some distance.A few in the large group were frightened to see the sight.They all made big eyes
as if saying ,"come back!" ,"comeback you fool!",others were silent frightened to witness the
unraveling scene.As they moved deeper it was more and more silent and dark.The pearl grew
bigger and bigger as they came nearer and nearer.Alice was lagging behind as jasmine strove fast
laughing out loud to alice,"catme alice if u can!".As the blinding glow of the pearl fell on
jasmine's eyes she felt so enchanted she could not move.the bubbles of her energetic breaths
started to slow as it went up .Her eyes opened up as if she was reading a devine magical
spell.Her mouth moved a bit and just then a vicious tantacle caught her in the head.And stung by
it her lifeless body shattered on to the neighboring rock and from behind came a giant
plankton.Its sword-like snout and jaws lined with predatory fangs soon devoured jasmine in
whole.Alice was shocked and paralysed to move but her small body felt an electic move.The
giant plankton turned around in no time but before it could hit she was out of there.Fast as she
could she swam and swam with all her strength locked in fillets.And soon she reached the group
in whole .The other fishes all talked to each other for how lucky she was to live another day.

But today as she stands wise, slow and old she finds life very slow.With every bubble that comes
of her mouth she now awaits her final demise.Her captor have perhaps forgotten her for they
dont seldom visit her anymore.With her fillets now old and torn she searches in the wall that
magical spell devine.

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