Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after ~ Henry David Thoreau

I have a different view on this. It seems to me most people are more about the fish than fishing. They aren't even about the quality of fish. More the quantity. Basically, about maximizing fishes. There must be some joy they get out of it. It's hard to believe people would pursue something so blindly if they had no conviction about it. What that conviction is, is what beats me! But such folks surround us everywhere. They are the majority, as it seems to me. They run around in a frenzy of activity because gathering fish, whatever else it may not be, is certainly enough to keep any man (or woman) busy.

The folks who are not about the fish, finding themselves sort of overpowered by these fish-obsessed types, have some choices to make. Hard choices all of them. Because if everybody believes we have to maximize the fish, they are going to make damn well sure you focus on them fishes. Forget your mumbo jumbo about enjoying the fishing, the nature, the skill, the practice, etc etc. Just bring it in. Count them, will you? Those who count are going to be counted. So what will you do? Good fish, bad fish, unusable fish, it doesn't matter. Keep counting. A choice one makes is to not lose one's love of fishing no matter how much you have to resist the fish counters. Not become like them or become them. They wouldn't know the difference, but you do. And you have to keep holding onto it. Tight. The other part of that choice is to pull enough fish that the fish counters don't throw you off the boat completely. You cannot afford to show that it is 'not the fish you are after'. If you want to keep fishing that is ;)

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Pic: My lunch spread at the campus canteen hereabouts in China. I sure enjoy having warm food for lunch! :) I picked the yellow cake type thing with black sesame sprinkles on top because it resembles what we call 'dhokla' in Gujarati Indian cuisine (complete with black mustard sprinkling) but it's nothing like that!