India, Sept. 7 -- The other day, with rains bottling the region, I took a ramble to Siswan dam. Till June, the dam was undergoing de-siltation, which resulted in large pools of imprisoned water when the monsoons set in. By those pools, I came upon fishermen using lines baited with earthworms. The line would suddenly twitch in the placid, 'dhaba chai-like' waters as the bait was taken. The fisherman would yank out a squirming fish, smeared scarlet by the hook's penetration. Exposed, the fish's dark eyes looked at me with terrified curiosity. We humans must seem to them as extra-terrestrials.

To my astonishment, the fishermen slipped the fish into tiny puddles to keep them fresh. They seemed to breathe easily out of the pools. Mostly they ...