Being aquaphobic!

I have a very dangerous habit of assuming lots of things. It had landed me into lots of trouble in the past. But as the Swathi, I am, I never learn. This time, what I assumed, very nearly cost my life, hmm… not exactly but nearly. I could have been dead!

I don’t know swimming. And so, I am scared of even attempting to float in water. As our gym membership also provides pool, Jacuzzi and sauna, I asked my husband once to teach me swimming. And the self-taught swimmer he was, he readily agreed to be my coach. But it turned out that neither did he have the patience to teach me nor did I have the courage to trust him. I didn’t leave my hold on the railing, for even a second, that within 10 minutes of coaxing me; he quit his role as my swimming coach. Finally he swam and I watched him swim, still holding on to the railing. There ended my dream to conquer water, with his help. (I have joined the proper swimming class anyway which starts next month, where I expect to have more patient coaches than my husband!)

My encounter with water didn’t end there. Some weeks back I found a new word (according to my limited vocabulary) in our gym timetable for autumn. It was ‘aqua aerobics’. It didn’t make any sense to me at all. I knew what ‘aqua’ was and what ‘aerobics’ was. But I really couldn’t think of anything that related the two. Then one day my instructor told me to join that class. She described it as doing some ‘light’ aerobics while standing in water. What I failed to understand was how much deep the water would be while doing those exercises and her meaning of the word ‘light aerobics’. I don’t know why, but I assumed that it would be in kids’ pool, where there is water only just above the ankle.

To double-check I asked my dear hubby whether he has seen ‘aqua aerobics’ class. [We can see pool from the gym above]. And he re-assured me that the water will be very much below knee and that I just may have to wear shorts. But he didn’t tell me that he had seen the class. Again, I assumed that he might have seen it. So, when I went to my first ‘aqua aerobics’ class yesterday, I took my swimwear with me in case they were particular about it. I told my instructor again and again that I don’t know swimming and that I may die in water if I tried and she told me that I don’t have to swim to do ‘aqua aerobics’. I trusted her.

To my utter horror, the class was in the big pool and not in the kids’ one. And we were supposed to do ‘aerobics’ in chin-level water! And then it hit me; my husband was lying. He knew it was not going to be in kids’ pool and wanted me to get over my fear of water. Forget ankle deep, in that depth I could be drowned. I was too scared to cross the pool that one lady literally carried me to the place where I could hold on to the railing. She told me that I was very brave to join the class though I was completely scared to move in water. What she didn’t know that my hubby and my instructor tricked me into it. My instructor allowed me to hold on to the edge of the pool while others were in the centre of the pool, when she could see that I was totally terrified.

And then it started. With boom box blasting, she began to do the normal aerobics outside the pool and we had to copy her, but standing in chin-level water. First, I couldn’t move my arms and legs, at all. I needed one arm to hold on to railing desperately and one arm to keep my balance. But with her aerobics combined with the high resistance of water, it was impossible. Now, I couldn’t quit also. Finally after 10 minutes of drinking that yucky pool water while managing to raise my arms and legs, I some how managed to keep my balance without holding on to the edge, for 2 minutes. Again I would lose balance, do the same charade of ‘aerobics’ and drink another gallon of water. Anyway this cycle repeated for one hr and by the time I got out of pool, I had a full bladder and was panting like a dog. And the best was still waiting for me. To add insult to injury or rather like sprinkling salt to my wound; there my colleague was watching me struggle all this time, from the Jacuzzi!

Can any day be BETTER than this?