One day with our fishermen from village Mudasal Odai on the eastern coast of Tamil Nadu.
I thought the trip would be just entertaining. But honestly it was equally inspiring.
Our day dawned on sea. We Started at 4.30 am. The catch was around 4 tons in total. Out of this 1 ton was a particular variety called ‘Matthi fish’, a favourite of the Kerala Indians that earned them 1 lac. This launch-boat is a BMW on water. costs 1 crore. It consumed 400 litres of diesel for today’s trip.
Their fishing technique is something that we need to squeeze our brain to understand. Physically demanding and equally risky. Skill and thrill goes hand in hand.
Until yesterday my opinion about fishermen was different. But the people today completely shook off my baseless perceived notions. Their ‘panbu’ (etiquette) is something we the so called educated need to learn. And what can I say about their ‘virundhombal’ (hospitality); hot milk at 5.30, fresh fish fry at 7.10 and white rice with a ‘cocktail’ fish kolambu (at least 4 varieties of fish in it) for lunch by 12.30 pm. All of this for Rs.zero! They simply refused any money from us. The owner Mr. Ramachandran standing next to me in the cabin voluntarily encouraged me to try driving his water-BMW while he was enthusiastically explaining the technology underlying the fishing technique.
The more I stood there the more it occurred to me:
To us, sea is a recreation.
To them, sea is Temple.
To us, fish is a dish.
To them, It is God.
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