I
knew Aravindan and Velayudhan, veteran fishermen, who used to go in their own ‘Kothumbu-Vallom’, tiny canoes. This was a single seated tiny canoe bobbing in the waves, when there is turbulence in the ‘Kayal’, and which requires a lot of
balance and experience to sit in it. Armed with their fishing rods, made of
sturdy branch of ‘Choondal’ Palm,
with a hook they used to venture out into the Cochin estuary to catch big fish.
At times, they used to get big fish like ‘Komban’,
Black Marlin, or ‘Sravu’ Shark, on their
fishing rod; One day Aravindan got a ‘Sravu’
on his fishing rod, since he could not manage to haul it up himself; he was
helped by some other fishermen who brought it to our shore. Crowds gathered at
the shore to watch it. The shark was cut into pieces for sale. The locals
bought some and the rest was sent to the Ernakulam market immediately. The
shark fins were also sent to Mattancherry for export to the South-east. When I
told ‘Ammachi’ about this, she told
me, “The people in South-east and Far East have a craze for Shark Fin Soups.
Sir C.P. Ramaswamy, the former Diwan of Travancore used to travel far and wide;
he knew of the demand for “Shark Fins” and therefore he used to buy it from the
Kerala Coast through Mohammed Noohoo of Chalai, Trivandrum, who made frequent
trips to Ceylon and South-east in connection with this business.”
Excerpts from
MEMOIRS
by
Joseph J. Thayamkeril
Lawyer, Kochi, Kerala, India.
josephjthayamkeril@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment