Lion in Gujarat

                                                                          

……………………………………………………………………………………   Lion in Gujarat  

Every once in a while  a senior citizen comes on Television shouting his heart out saying " Kuch din to guzaro Gujarat mein " I am damm sure we all have seen him during the ads on prominent TV channels, my youngest son claims that it is Amitabh Bachachan !! and I  am dam 2 sure that Amitabh-G wouldn't be working at this age , its  definitely  his Duplicate or body double!!  .
Feeling pity for an old man  who still has to earn his bread by pleading n promoting the already Vibrant Gujarat to millions of watchers, so I now decide to help him by visiting  Gujarat not as a tourist but as an Angler and  I already had received many open invitations from my chela ---> Aamir Bhavnagari for fishing on the Gujarat coast , it was me who was not willing to go that far due to many reasons. but now I had decided to go  , I informed the excited Aamir about my decision .        

It would be a blatant LIE if I said " I got a sudden call and I picked up my tackle and went fishing " although many anglers regularly use this line to fool those who they don't want to take along ,
This trip was carefully planned well in advance train tickets were booked , I boarded the train at night and  reached Ahmedabad before the break of dawn to find Aamir ready at the station to welcome me . later  Dr Yasser and Abid bhai also joined us and thus began our foursome journey towards some fishy destinations ,






while Aamir was driving we never even once had a chance to listen to any music in the car , we were busy talking  about almost everyone from Jeremy wade to the famous Jealous Jerks in the Angling world . LOL   
 I learned that quite a few Toms , Dicks ,Harry and Hairy Larrys were desperately dying to come to Gujarat and they were all very astutely kept at bay with proper excuses . I was pretty amused to hear that some Mr Dick (probably from David Copperfield) was always calling  up and asking for the dates to book his train tickets and others were hell bent in simply buttering and trying to lick him from all 6 sides all just for an invite to Gujarat  and Aamir seemed to very smartly handle the situation to his advantage and enjoy the undivided attention and affection showered on him ,  he has even got  memberships of some lesser known fishing groups .
 Out of my many dozen chelas  I was now beginning to feel proud of this extra smart chela and why should I not ??  after-all I am his Ustad ( his own words )

  
while listening to Aamir as he was busy doling  inputs about various anglers I quickly recalled the very first contact that Aamir had made to me on a once active fishing forum some 4.5 years back, I am sharing just two letters  to show  how very good he is in convincing people and getting what he wants

If I remember correctly my reply to the above message was as mentioned below

Dear Aamir ,

After reading your message I hurriedly looked to my right and left repeatedly and thoroughly examined myself but failed to find any wings on my body !! sorry I can't take you under what I really don't have !! just out of curiosity are you a memon ?
regards 
Sayed / lionheart  

Lol...  now this smart fella is calling me an Angel and above all  Invoking as reference the Quote of our Beloved PROPHET ( peace be upon him) I cannot deny him now !! and so I called him to Konkan coast two times and poured into him what all knowledge I had about Fishing, I showed him which lure will work on which  fish, he practiced his lessons thoroughly  in six days of non stop Angling in some of my best Secret locations , on the very first day in Konkan we had collectively caught 33kg of fish comprising mainly of Barramundi in just two hours and after that he was no more called dr murrell but now a hardcore Saltie   


  we reached the place at noon and started to fish while our local friends  netted  some crabs and snappers for lunch

                           they painstakingly cleaned and marinated the fish in their local style

So strong was the love and affection shown by the locals that I never worried about getting a food infection

                               and I too joined in stirring up a storm in the frying pan

                                                               Dr Yasser also helped us

   how do you like my new Quechua Hat and Berkley Sunglasses   ??  Oops I forgot to tell you that I am cooking Crab stew

    while the Local  Tendulkar is talking about fishing  most of us are tired and hungry just waiting and planning how to attack the sizzling food

        Fresh bread , Freshly fried Fish and Crab stew   = Attack !!! and don't look either way  until all is finished 

        close by two sea Cucumbers are up to something naughty

                            The white one definitely appears to be a Male

                                       The rest of his moves are censored

 neither of us  get any fish till sunset ! only the locals managed to net 1.5kg fresh prawns and that's what I am cooking for dinner

                                          Yasser is always around to lend a helping hand

        The Ancient House that  may have even seen the end of the Firangi occupation in INDIA 

                                          Yasser preparing breakfast  

     day two & three in another village  me and Aamir keep on casting in the turbulent tides while the Locals have packed  their rods giving up hope

                                                  Yasser has something to smile for

its already noon and the heat has become unbearable Aamir takes refuge under some shade while I decide to do some Yogic Meditation in order to please the LORD so that I may to hook some big bootifull fish 

 while engrossed in  deep meditation , someone disturbs me and I am sure its the same dancing damsel   Maneka sent to break my Tapasya  ! I open my eyes to find myself in an elevated position with Aamir next to me still looking confused and  caressing  the butt of his rod
  three days of fishing day n night  and yet no Fish ?? except for Abid bhai who baited a fingermark after sunset      I suddenly realize that my KONKAN is a lot better than Gujarat !!  Its now Obvious  that the locals have taken up Angling in a big way, some locals seem to compete with us in angling, wherever we quietly went they also would reach the place in no time and start casting,  at one point I felt this place is soon going to be another copy of Madh (Mumbai) one sign of feeding and there is a shower of  poppers & lures , the fish had now started to shy away from lures ( Branded lures & unbranded)    and I met many locals who sourced their  tackle  from shop owners at Masjid Bunder ( Mumbai)   Aamir  has fished here many times and he too had returned empty handed on quite a few occasions,  after this trip I am not that enthusiastic about visiting Gujarat again I strongly believe in Destiny and whatever is there in it for me ordained by my LORD  then No Mai ka Laal will stop me from getting it anywhere , anytime  

                               with 3 days flying by quickly , its time to head back home  

back on the train  to Mumbai  I am repeatedly starred at by this Sumo wrestler sitting in front of me  and I also want to take up the challenge of  " who blinks first " but I can't !!! because of my Superman like deadly laser vision I can burn him to ashes in seconds but as you know with Power comes responsibility  ,  so I quickly cover my eyes with my new Berkely Polarized sunglases and save the poor Fellow
Lol I was just kidding in fact this Annachi was a gentle giant we chatted all thru the journey and he willingly gave a serious pic for my blog

   The journey of a thousand km began with a train , a car and ended with a train,
All you folks who are habituated to seeing the Lion come back triumphantly and pose with catches should see that its perfectly normal to came back empty handed without any catch ,
 so next time you don't get any fish on your trip ! you can verily console your tired self saying  " Even the Lion comes back without a Kill "

Special Thanks to Kasam bhai, Akbar bhai , Yusuf Bhai for their wonderful hospitality 
 and also to Aamir ,Yasser and Abid bhai  for making this trip a memorable one

 ”Fishing is a constant reminder of the democracy of life, of humility, and of human frailty. The forces of nature discriminate for no man.” - Herbert Hoover

Lionheart signing--> Over and Out with a Pout   

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my mail id :   lionheartangler@hotmail.com   

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