"Empty-handed again, Raghavan? Did you fail to catch any fish throughout the day?" Gopalan, a rich fisherman in his late fifties, asked mockingly of another fisherman who had just docked his small boat at the fishing harbour.
Disheartened and exhausted after failing to catch fish the entire day, Raghavan just nodded without meeting Gopalan’s eyes. He looked around the pier and saw Gopalan guiding his men in unloading crates of fishes - Kola Meen (Tuna), Karimeen (Pearl Spot), Ayla (Mackerel) and many more - from three trawlers. Gopalan wore a silk kurta with pajama, his gold chain and bracelet were clanking whenever he moved his torso or arms. His small boat was crushed against the mechainsed trawlers of Gopalan like waves against the rock.
“You should sell this boat and work for me,” Gopalan remarked while laughing, “At least you would earn more than what you’re earning.” His men laughed in unison too. Raghavan again said nothing but stood there like a mast.
The orange-yellow hued sun was setting on the horizon of Arabian sea, reflecting the long slant shadow of Raghavan on the pearl-blue surface. He looked down to avoid glances, turned, and walked home. The heavy sound of crates sliding, men heaving and Gopalan yelling faded with each passing step.
***
Raghavan arrived at his thatched hut of two rooms built on a raise plateau overlooking the pearl-blue sea. The backyard was full of full-grown bamboos and lush green grass. As he entered the hut, his teenage daughters, Beena and Srivali, greeted him with joy and exuberance. Meenakshi, his wife, was stewing something in a pot over the gas in the corner of the hut.
Beena, the eldest daughter with a sharp face, long hair and tall stature, took the fishing net, sail and a few miscellaneous items from the hands of Raghavan, while Srivali brought a glass of water.
"No luck today?" Meenakshi asked as Raghavan sat next to her on the mat in a relaxing position.
"It's getting difficult day by day to beat these trawlers," Raghavan replied sighing of exasperation, "By the time I reach the spot, the trawlers scoop out a large number of fish with their long nets."
"Only one week of rice is left," Meenakshi sighed, "If it goes on like that, we won't have anything to eat in the next few days. Krishnan came in the noon to take his money back as we promised to return in a fortnight."
"What happened?" Raghavan asked, looking at her with pity in his eyes.
"He threatened to take the matter to the Meenava Sabha if we don’t repay the money by next full moon,” she bemoaned. “I begged a lot and explained the situation. So, he agreed to give us this much time.”
Raghavan kept staring at the ceiling, ruminating on the rising debt, depleting ration and growing problems. He flinched when he put his fingers in the hot stew.
“Beena asked for money today. She has to pay tuition fees in her college at any cost by the end of this month,” Meenakshi said after a pause of few minutes. She struggled to stand up after finishing her cooking because her pregnant belly made it difficult. While passing through, Beena helped her mother to stand up on feet.
“Don’t worry Appa, the college is ready to give me some time for submitting my fees. You must not say this, Amma when Appa is exhausted and stressed,” Beena lamented, as seeing him worry about her due fees. Beena stormed into the adjoining room where Srivali was sleeping.
***
The next day Beena woke up late after the yellow-tinted sun reached top of the sky. Upon seeing her father sleeping in bed, she became curious and asked Amma. Her father would leave for fishing before dawn and come mostly in afternoon or sometimes in evenings.
“What happened? Appa didn’t go for fishing today,” Beena asked her mother, who was making a fishing net from coir ropes.
“Appa is ill. He has a high fever and feeling weak,” Meenakshi replied without looking at her. “I called Kuttan, who will take him to the local physician at noon.”
“What are you doing?” Beena asked.
“I am making mats, nets and handicrafts from coir,” Meenakshi responded, “Hoping someone will buy them so we can have money to pay debt and buy food.
“I can help you, can I?” Beena asked in the excitement.
“No, you should focus on studies and college. We’ve paid half of the fees, if you leave in the middle, it will go to waste.”
“But, how can you go to sell these in this condition? Beena questioned, pointing at her seven-month pregnant belly, “It might be dangerous for you and the child.”
“Let me handle this while you focus on studies,” Meenakshi scolded her. Beena became furious at her mother’s cold response and stormed out of the hut.
***
In the afternoon, Raghavan came back from the local physician with his friend Kuttan. He was weak and exhausted. He sat on the open porch of his thatched hut. Kuttan told Meenakshi that Raghavan had been contracted with Pneumonia due to cold and wet sea winds and was recommended a long rest and proper nutrition.
“How much do I need to pay Appan?” Meenakshi asked, while bringing two glasses of water.
“No, Chechi,” Kuttan said as he took the glass of water. “I know this is a tough situation for entire family as Raghu is the sole breadwinner. Pay me later whenever you have money.”
Meenakshi brushed away a few droplets of tears in her eyes.
“I must go for fishing,” Raghavan interrupted. “I don’t have luxury to sit hand-in-hand while my family is starving.”
“Don’t think that,” Kuttan rebuked, “Doctor has advised to take at least one week rest unless pneumonia would become worse. Chechi, don’t let him go.”
Meenakshi also nudged Raghavan to not lose senses and let go of his stubbornness. With a heavy heart, Ragahvan accepted his fate and decided to leave his wish to go fishing in this condition.
Beena eavesdropped on the conversation and ran to the backyard of the house.
Beena rushed to her favourite spot, a place she and Srivali had often visited since childhood. It was an isolated rocky hill overlooking the vast Arabian sea, with lush greenery blanketing the surroundings. Not many people came to this place, making it exotic and special for Beena. It was a kind of refuge where she could take a pause in time, smell the salty tang, and feel the cold breeze of the sea.
Srivali came after her as she knew where Beena would be in distress.
“What happened Akka? Why did you run away here?” Srivali asked, sitting next to Beena.
“You know everything, Srivali,” Beena sighed. “We are in grave trouble and I can’t do anything. I want to help in this time of distress. We can’t just sit and wait for a miracle. We have to do something.”
“But what can we do, Akka?” Srivali wondered.
“You know that I’m very skilled in fishing. Appa and I did a lot of fishing near lake. He taught me every nitty-gritty of fishing. We can go for fishing if he won’t.”
“What? We? Don’t you know what Amma told us girls and women must not go fishing, it brings ill luck,” Srivali said, jerking at the mere thought of going for fishing.
“This is just a taboo, nothing else,” Beena remarked. “We can do what men do. You just need to trust me and keep your mouth shut until we go for deep fishing.”
“Do you think how others will react if they see women going for fishing,” Srivali questioned.
“We don’t tell them. That’s the last option we have. Unless father won’t be able to pay the tuition fees and we have to quit the college in the middle.”
Beena and Srivali became quiet, observing a sandpiper hovering over the water near the shore. It darted vertically, opened its beak, caught a prawn and flew away in the sky.
***
The moonlight made the pathway easier to walk despite broken street lights along the shore. Beena and Srivali were rushing as discreetly as possible to the fishing habour. They were earlier than the usual time of fishermen venturing into the sea. Their hearts were pounding and each sound made their heartbeats leap.
They spotted their father’s boat squishing against Gopalan’s trawlers, untied the ropes, put fishing net in the deck, and raised the sail. Beena cranked the motor and, after a few sputters, the boat’s engine rumbled softly.
They left the fishing harbour, believing that they would be gone before anyone spotted them. With each passing moment, the shore line was blurring until it became a speck. The first light of day broke the dark, deep slumber of night. There was nothing but deep blue water around them. It was scary yet exciting. Srivali opened her arms wide apart on the deck and embraced the gushing cold breeze of the sea mixed with salt.
“Wohoo!” Srivali shrieked in excitement and joy.
“Don’t be there. You will catch cold, Sri.”
After an hour of sailing, sisters were finally at the spot where their father told the stories of finding large schools of fishes. They couldn’t take the risk to be caught by others, therefore, they decided to remain off-route and went behind the archipelago.
Meanwhile, Mani caught the sisters sneaking out on the boat off the shore when he was cleaning one of Gopalan’s trawlers. He was confounded and so he rushed to Gopalan to tell him what had happened.
***
Gopalan and a few men reached to Raghavan’s hut and ordered him to come out.
“Enough is enough,” said Gopalan when Raghavan and Meenakshi came out of the hut. He was furious and haughty. “How can you send your daughters to fishing when you know that it’s a sin?”
Raghavan and Meenakshi couldn’t believe for a moment. Meenakshi rushed to the other room to check on her daughters and was shocked when the room was empty. She told that they weren’t here.
“You know others might suffer because of this,” Gopalan yelled, as other men agreeing to him. “Gods will punish us for disrupting the natural order. Women must be away from boats.”
Petrified and shocked, Ragahavan begged before the elders to forgive them.
“They were young. They don’t their good and bad. Please forgive them,” Meenakshi said in a meek voice from inside the hut.
“The first thing to do is to find them before any mishap happens,” Kunjappan exclaimed. “These girls are in danger. Sea is treacherous and it devours anyone who comes near.”
Raghavan asked Kuttan to go for lookout in the sea in the search of his daughters. He did as he was told and left the shore.
“These girls are fools… What do they know about fishing?... It’s something only skilled men can do,” the crowd chattered.
***
The orange-hued sky appeared as the sun was all set to hide behind the horizon. The sisters were unsuccessful in catching any fish. Catching fish seemed harder than it appears from afar, they realised. Srivali was discouraged and wished to return back. Beena was adamant.
“By now they found that we have gone for fishing,” Srivali exasperated, shaking from head to toe with fear. “Father must be anxious and mom must be furious.”
“Let that not be our worry, Srivali,” Beena reaffirmed. “They are helpless like us. We have to catch fish to make some money or else there’ll be no food and shelter.
“But the entire day slipped by and we couldn’t catch a single fish except a dozen clams and rocks,” Srivali sighed. “Our techniques aren’t working, I suppose. We have to go where those trawlers were fishing. They swooped out large number of fish in the few hours and left for the shore to end the day.”
“Patience is a must, Srivali,” said Beena, “if you want to achieve something big in life. Let’s hope that we might catch sooner or later so we can go home.”
“I am feeling homesickness, Akka,” said Srivali.
“Eat rice. You may feel good,” Beena offered her the food.
The search party, launched in the late afternoon, returned empty-handed. They couldn’t spot the sisters.
Ragahavan was worried and anxious. Earlier, he had tried to go out himself to search for his daughters. Meenakshi and Kuttan were successful to stop him for making any rash decision. Now, after the return of search party without any knowledge of whereabouts, he felt restless and full of grief.
Other women from neighbourhood came to console her. Tears weren’t stopping from Meenakshi’s eyes and swelled like a puff. She was told to not worry too much because of being pregnant. But the fear of losing both her both daughters seemed unbearable. The day turned into night as they waited. Other men and women dissipated gradually, with Raghavan and Meenakshi being together with grief and a pall of gloom.
***
A group of seagull hovering nearby the boat broke their long slumber. Clenching her grip, Beena looked at the endless sea—the deep, dark Arabian Sea. It had been over 24 hours since they had been at sea, but they were still unsuccessful in catching anything significant.
Anxious and terrified, Beena and Srivali sailed the boat to the uncharted territory of the water beyond the archipelago. This was the only option they had as there couldn’t go back. They spread the net once again on the turquoise water where the seagulls were hovering before. Hoping to find good catch, they waited there patiently.
“I’m terrified. Won’t they ostracise us?”
“Let’s focus on the tasks ahead of us instead of worry,” Beena reaffirmed in a strong, bold voice. She gripped tightly the fishing net, looked at the calm sky, and prayed to Gods to guide them on the right path.
A while later, Srivali felt a strong tense in the fishing net. There must be something, she yelled. Beena lurched to support Srivali holding the net tightly. The tense was forceful, pulling both sisters forward despite dual power. The boat was shaking to and fro from the sides due to the tug-of-war, making it harder to keep it steady.
None was showing the tiredness to let the other win. The tug went on for almost half an hour. At one point, the grip of Beena and Srivali seemed to slip past through their hands, but they, somehow, managed to keep it. The underwater fish was tiring too as her pull wasn’t as strong as it was before. It swirled around the boat several rounds, making it harder for sisters to hold the net.
Half an hour in the tussle and they were exhausted like hell. Both ends became still like a lull before the storm. Beena and Srivali kept their grip as tightly as possible, looking at their only chance to prove themselves right. Their throats were dry, palms were full of sweat and bodies had unbearable pain.
“That’s enough,” Beena yelled and yanked the rope at the fullest force, putting every ounce of her body’s energy into that one act. Srivali reflected by this sudden action jerking off to the backside. The fish wasn’t expecting such a strong pull all of a sudden. It came out like a dart at a full force landing on the boat’s deck with a huge thump. It was having a shiny body, full of dark blue scale fading to silver on the sides and belly with a long, flat sword-like bill.
“It’s Velameen,” Srivali shrieked, who couldn’t control herself while jumping in the burst of joy.
“Indeed! We’ve caught a big velameen,” Beena shouted in a zeal of excitement too.
Beena looked up at the sky, smiled in proudness, and embraced the salty breeze of the sea. Seagulls were flying in a V position as if they were congratulating her.
***
A meeting was held where elders judged the act of the sisters. Gopalan with a few rich and old fishermen were against the unconventional act. They threatened to ostracise the whole family.
But sisters found some unexpected supporters in the form of wives of fishermen, who were against the punishment. These women not only stood like a wall before the sisters but also praised them for doing what was difficult for men too.
The elders decided to pardon the sisters and allowed the family to sell the velameen. The fish sold over Rs 1 lakh, bringing a huge relief to the family. Raghavan repaid the loans and ate the fish for the first time in a month the same night. He hugged his both daughters and thanked Gods.
