A Fishy Affair

Twice a day, the boat jetty in the fishing village of Jivna near Shrivardhan springs into action enacting a ritual many decades old...Boats line up along the jetty to unload their silvery treasures and a frenetic burst of activity sees baskets of fish sorted by race, color, creed and size being carried onto a square patch of land at the far end of the pier. A gaggle of men and women mill around anxiously, talking to each other, hovering around a prize catch or staring at a rare one like a giant sting ray. A middle aged gentleman appears with a notebook and starts softly murmuring...."'500'...'600'...'1000'....sold". The crowd now congregates around him and the bidding becomes a bit more heated particularly with the lots of surmai (kingfish) and its cousins, with the top bid fetching upwards of ten thousand for a whole lot. As the bidding continues so do the side shows...baskets are transferred into ice cases and put into waiting trucks, stout koli women do a second sale before the fish can reach a truck, an old man is gifted a few small fish for his curry and little kids scamper through the rows poking at a basket of crabs or sticking their hands into the cold crates of ice. This ritual continues for a couple of hours until the fish become sparser, the square becomes emptier, the crowd dissipates and the fishermen start to repair their nets as crows step in for their due. A calm overlaps Jivna Bandar until they all gather again, in ten hours, to re-consummate the cycle of a really fishy affair...

Comments

[Aditya Basu]

Excellent pictures. this is spiritofindia@gmail.com

I would like to know what you do and how u get such amazing travelogue. By anychance ru there on WAYN also?

Can I publish these pictures?

Is there any cause I can join in?

[rajesh]

its excellent picture sir may i know where and when the puja pandal (inspire by rajastahn)is made and by whom