The salty taste, cool breeze, rapid wind, beautiful scenery, loadzz of solitude just makes you feel contended and cheerful. Entering the fishermen's village it all begins with the net, boat and hardworking soul who tussle with perseverance in sunny day, humid atmosphere, sometimes quietest or wildest sea and the feel of salt everywhere.
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And they are not alone.... many lives apart from their family are counting on them for the best possible catch. The daily routine to travel in a boat, spread the seine wait and watch for the signals, work in unison to fetch the best possible fish for the bread and butter of everyday. The other hand they get the best possible supervisors who are more vigilant than fishermen themselves. These all families of birds in fraction of second, take hold of the one who is jumping out of water in the net.
The day begins and ends with sea and salt in veins!!!!!!! When they return home all with cheerful faces sometimes earned just of a meal... and a day comes where they are like a king for next few days due to the huge and costliest catch. Peeping more in to their life gives deeper understanding of world around.
While surfing around found this unexpectedly!!! was happy to see the star fish at first glance, the color and beauty of all shapes attracted me. Selfishly felt lifting it keeping it safe with me, but after turning it around found it to be alive :-) happily I pushed it back to the sea.
 
After getting the best catch all fishermen returned back to their home
After securing the boat/ raft by anchor they are ready move with all the earnings of the day..... all footsteps to the market ...
 
few more glimpse in to their life........
  
It reminds me only one song....in my native language.... "Jithe sagara dharni milte... tithe tujhi me wat pahate .. wat pahate..."
In any direction u move... nature is at its best ...
It may be routine for them.. but everything was a new experience...... to cherish forever
In that devastating conditions o... a ray of hope was seen when I came across this missionary school. Tried to interact with students, they were excited to see a new person in village. Many girls approached to shake hands, spoke a few words in English. Whereas, boys were simply running around, climbing trees, walls of school just to see the unknown human :-)
After walking a mile further, i saw these broken places, which were considered to be naval forces area earlier.
Further walking down towards fisherman's village, I could see some houses. But there was dread silence. I could not see any one. May be the scorching summer day restrained them to house.
 
Though no one was seen around, the construction of houses with available local resources was alluring.
To my surprise, I saw a Church. It was closed that day, on exploring from locals, I understood that opens only on a few occasions. Furthermore, locals mentioned that full village is of Christians and hence a few Church were built in and around the coastal area. Priest visited the place frequently. Though majority of those Christians were converted from one or more religions they showed strong faith in prayers and religious practices which their ancestors have practiced.
Initially I thought, the area is totally deprived of things like what we have as being in metro cities. But it was not like that.... walking further I could see some two wheeler, four wheeler were rare or u can say negligible.
I met a person Mr Antony. He oriented me to whole Village. Introduced me to his friends, family and many more people of is village. I was overwhelmed with the kind of hospitality he and his family offered. their richness of heart was evident in each of their actions. Our words were scanty but communication which we had, made everlasting impact on my life.
Finally Antony took me to a place which I wanted to visit.. the end of Rameshwaram. fully protected by Indian Navy. Justthe sight of sea water excites me..... here it was full ocean with such a mesmerizing beauty.. untouched by tourists. Everywhere I turned around... its just crystal clear water... water ... and water :-)
Antony was a deep sea diver, who collected sea shells. His daily routine was to get up early morning and go to the sea area where his ancestral raft was parked in shrubs. He showed me all places where he dives every day.
  
I enjoyed my day... 6 to 7 km wayfaring :-) exploring fishermen's life, their culture, habitat and so on. Meeting new people is always fun. Sometimes it did scared me with its silence. But the nature took care of everything.
Antony's relative dropped me on his bike, back to my Hotel.
 
The beautiful day of exploring fishermen's village gave me a life time experience and memories to cherish.
My heartfelt thanks to Antony and his family :-) and all people of Rameshwaram.
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