Anugerah, the Eel and the Fish

I’ll bring you back to year 2005. We were on holiday in Holland to visit my in laws. My father in law loves fish and eel. Not like me that just like eating fish, he also likes to fish and to catch eels. Close to his house there is a small creek.

Sometimes he put a fish net there. He put it in the evening and the next morning he went to see whether he got one. One day he got home with an eel and a small fish.
Anugerah, at that time 4 years old, was very interested in everything living in water.

Knowing this grand Pa called him and put the eel and fish in a bucket. Anugerah was so exciting that he could see an eel so close. He just sat and stared at them. But the poor small fish didn’t survived. Then Grand Pa took it and threw it away over the hedge. At that time Anugerah was inside the house. He needed to go to the toilet.


He came back again to the bucket. He enjoyed watching the harvest of his Grand Pa. But then he noticed that the eel was alone in the bucket. Where is the fish? he asked me. I said, the fish is already dead so Grand Pa threw it away.

He started to cry and said that he wanted the fish back. Grand Pa came and said that he would catch another fish, bigger fish for him but to no luck. Anugerah kept crying.

Grumbling Grand Pa went outside to bush behind the hedge. It’s not an easy job to find a small fish between the leaves and branches. But finally and luckily he found it. He came back and threw the dead fish back in the bucket.

Anugerah was happy and continued staring at the bucket, although the fish lay upside down in the water. At least they were together.