India, Oct. 26 -- Balanced uneasily on a motorbike, the trio had driven 20 km from Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Chandigarh. They were ready to brave mud and mosquitoes on a Sunday afternoon in the remote backwaters of Siswan Dam. They were migrants from the Hindi heartland states and eking out a living as gardeners at PEC. They had come armed with the desire of wiling away their time by gambling with teeny-weeny lives.

Monsoons had created numerous pools of tea-brown water. In them were marooned fishes, not more than a few inches long and known as Striped Dwarf fish (Mystus vittatus). The three musketeers were baiting them with earthworms dangled on improvised fishing lines, sans rods. But how many hooked?

They landed a few after a...