From Whale to Mermaid to Tubed Water Hippo

With a daughter as a Swift swimmer at 3 and our editor cheif being an international Swimmer too ,we must listen to the incident of their very precious non Swimmer whale! As a child there were no Swiming pools that i heard off other than in 5 star hotels where on an yearly l.t.c break with 3 feet water i used to feel no less than Khazan Sing the national olympian! But as i became a mom sitting outside the pool for 3 years seeing my daughter Swim like a fish ,my cool and ambitious instincts inspired me too,to learn the skill of swimming. The main reason i wanted to learn was loosing weight ( never knew one packet of senor pepito tortila nachos with sweet lime soda just after swimming would rather make me gain 6 kgs in 2 months) ,as well protect myself during some flood or fall in a well( tsunami had just hit the nicobar islands when i thought of learning swimming) .With not too slim a body i bought the water proof tights ,full shorts costume, a swimming cap and sppeedo Swimming goggals to learn free style swimming, butrerfly and back stroke which i often saw Korean co swiming pool visitors was lined up in my learning. For 8 days the coach just made me hold the lowest level swimming pool bars and taught leg movements, breathing which he called Bobbling and face dipping, when perffect with that he moved me to a second level coach in deeper waters till my neck who taught me hand movements and eyes ,legs and hand co- ordination with regular breathing at interval of 40 seconds aswell non colision with co swimmers, so lane changing! This again took 10 days ,on 18th day i was a swimmer of half the pool from its width! All my co swimming learners who were usually kids under 10 used to clap for me even if i swam 10 meters without coach s help! On 19th day i boasted to my Great swimmer husband, now u must see your Mermaid swiftly swimming in the pool! He thought i m talking about our daughter and said ofcourse she is like her dad not like you! At that i in my pride challenged him and invited him to see my Swiming skills, that very day. As it was a Saturday and his gym was off,reluctantly he came to pool ,my daughter waved to him swimming like a little gold Fish! Now was my turn..i dived to splash 7 litters water outside and then clumsily paddled my hands and feet half the way to pool ,at half way i forgot breathing technique and started loosing my orientation and waved hard screaming bachaao bachaao…all Swimming pool guards whistled loudly and continously and the main coach dived with a big red and white life saving ring in the pool to rescue me pushing me to other end of pool! All the onlookers ,kids ,oldies or parents rushed towards the side of pool where i sat coughing and sneezing! Though i could see my husband grinning far away not to be related to the tubed water hippo! Do share your experiences of learning Swimming too.