Past few days have been a blur. Some working and some play. 
Jitesh, Gandhi, Arnab and I played some tennis. I hae started getting a decent
handle on the shots. Well the backhands still suck, but what the heck, we are
learning, aren't we?

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In related news, I got a fishbowl and a fish. I had always wanted a pet but was
always put off by the amount of care the pets need. A fish seemed like a perfect
pet. All it needs is a bowl, food twice a day and weekly water changes. So, one
morning I visited the local petsmart store and asked the lady there about a good
beginner fish. She told me about the "betta", the siamese fighting fish. These
fish are colorful and pretty. But the males are quite aggressive and don't go
along well together. Thus, one fish per bowl. So, I picked a colorful betta male
(he has the colors similar to peacock), a bowl, betta food and water
dechlorinator. The betta seemed quite happy in the bowl. Well, he should be. He
was living in a small cup sized container and now he has a 1/2 gallon bowl for
himself. Hmm, I thought the fish might get bored in a glass bowl with nothing to
do, so I planned on getting a plant and gravel for him. 

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Next day in the morning,
I noticed the flakes I had been feeding the betta on, were not entirely
consumed. I put a few more flakes and it swallowed them and spit them out. Hmm,
a finicky betta. So, I paid the store another visit and got the plant, gravel
and betta pallets. The betta ate one pallet the first time I fed it. The gravel
stank of paint, but the packaging claimed, non-toxic etc. so I gave it a try.

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Well, the next morning the betta (by now named Rangeela  (colorful) because of
his color), was a bit sluggish. I was alarmed, so I checked online on google
groups and found that a few other people had experience with this gravel and
they did not like it either. I took the gravel out and smelled it. It stank of
paint. So, I removed the gravel from the bowl, changed the water, put the plant
back in the bowl. But the plant would not stay still because there was nothing
to hold it to the bottom. The betta was put back in and it was still a bit
sluggish. By evening, it seemed to be getting a bit better. So I visited the
Fish store at 3145 Peachtree Rd. NE and got some Flourite. It is a special type
of gravel, good for plants. It did not stink and the lady at the shop picked it
out of her aquarium, so I know it is safe. Later I check it online and it seemed
like a good substrate. So anyway, I came back, put the gravel in, adjusted the
plants so that their roots were in the gravel and fed the betta. This time, the
betta consumed all four pallets I put in. Viola, seems like the gravel was the
culprit. Today the betta seems quite fine, it is active, swimming around in the
bowl, building its bubble nest in a corner. The plant seems healthy and the
betta struggles with the plant every now and then, finds a nest in it and rest
for a while and then resumes swimming. Morning, it consumed all the four
pallets I gave it. So far so good.