A little fish called Riya

I made a new friend at the swimming sessions at the club yesterday- only that she called me aunty! Well, Riya is the youngest friend I've made. The first thing is wanted to do once we became friends was race. I knew I would loose since the 11-year-old had been swimming at the club for the last three years while I have just begun swimming after probably 3 years or more.
Anyway, I'm a sport. So I agreed to race. We had two races and obviously I lost both.

After that I asked her to be my coach and teach me how to do free style. She was a smart girl and a smart coach. She gave me some important lessons in swimming.

Here are some tips she gave:

• Don't cough or sneeze under water. It can be dangerous.
• When you swim sideways, you can breathe and then go down again while doing free style.
• If you learn free style, you can easily learn butterfly stroke.
• Do breathing exercises under water. It helps improve your stamina.
• Leave your body to the water. Just relax and swim, you'll feel better.
• That it wasn't important to win a race as tiny as the one at Wellingdon. It was more important to swim well and enjoy it!

Within half an hour I had got a hang of the stroke. I complimented her saying she was a great coach. But when she saw me do quite well for a starter she said, "I don't think I'm that good a coach. I think you are a fast learner."

Now look at that. Kids these days are really smart. They can put us adults to shame!

And apart from these tips. She told me her whole kahaani. About her school, her house, who has the best memory in her house and that her memory sucks, that she is Jain, an accident she had when she was really young, how she became fat when she was young, how she fell sick when she fell into the water at 2, what her mum scolds her for etc etc. One talkative little girl.

Anyway I'm looking forward to bumping into her at the pool this evening. I hope we do more swimming and less talking now.

Another cute thing she said- "I think I'm a fish. When I'm in the pool I can't spend too much time outside water!"