Fish, Family and Friends
Rumy Mohta and his son Cyrus, 13, fish together on the Swift Creek Reservoir.
Rumy Mohta never fished before he came to this country from India 24 years ago. Now, it's something he can't get enough of.
Fortunately for Mohta, his next catch is just steps from his back door.
Mohta, president of Richmond Travels and chairman of the Asian American Society of Central Virginia, said life in Chesterfield County's Brandermill community has given him a new-found joy – fishing for largemouth bass on Swift Creek Reservoir with his sons and close friends.
"When I first came here, I didn't even know how to put a worm on a hook," he said. "I had gone out with some friends ... and they did it. Once [you experience] the thrill of catching a fish on a hook, and you bring up one or two, it brings your caveman instinct out."
Mohta said his sons Eric and Cyrus are better fishermen than he. But it's the time he spends with them that he enjoys.
"I enjoy the part of catching the fish. But even when you don't catch fish, it's the calm, the serene, the quietness of just being with my young son or with a couple of friends – that's the best part," he said. The reservoir is "really peaceful and quiet – no motor engines allowed."
Mohta said he tries to fish everywhere he travels.
"It's just the challenge of doing it and then you release them," he said. "You can't keep everything. God didn't intend us to do so."
Mohta said the metropolitan area's abundance of parks such as Pocahontas State Park and Maymont offer great opportunities for families. He said his organization routinely holds cricket, soccer and other games at local parks.
Mohta also said the city's embracing the variety of cultures in a way it didn't when he arrived more than two decades ago.
"Slowly but surely, there is a lot of variety of new ethnic food places [that] are getting opened up now in Richmond which wasn't there in the 1980s," he said.
"When I first came here, there were no Indian grocery stores out here either," he said. "The nearest place was in Washington, D.C." But now, "literally every few miles, you have Indian grocery stores or even Asian grocery stores," he said.
This article originally published in Discover Richmond. Click here to view more Discover articles, or send us an e-mail to request a copy of the magazine.
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