My name is Rajesh Kumar, 36 years old, an accountant at a construction firm in the outskirts of Lucknow, India. My wife, Anjali, four years younger than me, works as an assistant at a cosmetics company. Anjali is beautiful, graceful, and talented—but what makes her unique is a peculiar passion: every weekend, she insists on going to “catch catfish.”
Since our wedding day, she would wake up early on Saturdays, slip on her rubber sandals, grab a netted basket, and say cheerfully:
“Let’s go fishing, Rajesh!”
At first, I thought it was harmless, even admirable. Not many men are lucky enough to have a wife so hardworking and energetic.
But slowly, doubts crept in. Every time she returned, her basket brimmed with catfish, water sloshing, the smell sharp and muddy. Yet her clothes were spotless. No dirt, no stains, not even damp. Sometimes I caught a faint fragrance of perfume clinging to her collar.
Still, something felt off. On nights when she slept peacefully beside me, I would sit in the living room staring at the fishing basket by the shoe rack, wondering if the catfish were just catfish.
One Saturday morning, I decided to find out. I pretended to have work but secretly followed her. She rode her scooter not toward any ponds, but into town, stopping before a run-down lodge hidden in a back alley. She entered quickly. My heart tightened.
Fifteen minutes later, a man arrived. I recognized him instantly—Vikram Sharma, an old colleague of hers, divorced, a few years older than me.
I couldn’t go inside. Not out of fear of being caught—but out of fear of confirming what I already knew.
That evening, Anjali returned, basket full of fat catfish, her face glowing.
“Today’s catch is perfect! Let’s make curry tomorrow,” she said.
I nodded, smiling faintly, while my hands trembled under the table.
The next day, I asked my friend Sanjay, who works in security, to install a small GPS tracker in her scooter. I hated myself for it—but I could no longer breathe under the weight of suspicion.
For three weeks, I recorded her movements. Every Saturday, sometimes even Sundays, she visited different lodges—three in total. Always with him.
I couldn’t carry the silence anymore. I arranged to meet Vikram at a small teashop near the railway station.
He looked startled to see me, but sat down politely. I didn’t waste words.
“What is your relationship with Anjali?”
He sighed, his eyes lowering.
“I’m sorry, Rajesh. But… feelings aren’t always controllable.”
My fist tightened around the steaming cup, knuckles white. I wanted to break something, but all I could do was hold on.
That night, I laid the photos, call logs, and tracking data on the table before Anjali. She stared for a long time before tears filled her eyes.
“I never wanted to deceive you,” she muttered.
“But with you… I feel invisible. You plan everything, calculate everything, treat life like a balance sheet. With him, I feel alive again.”
She didn’t leave immediately. She asked for time to think. I didn’t beg her to stay. Something in me had already broken—with the last basket of catfish.
I still love her. Maybe I always will. But real love is not clinging at all costs. Sometimes, it is knowing when to let go—so the other person can live true to themselves.
Since that day, I have never touched catfish again.
