I stepped down from the Tirupati Satragachi Super Fast Express on platform number 5 of the Rajahmundry railway station at 5a.m. on an unusually nippy morning, rare even in winter in the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. Rajahmundry bills itself as the cultural capital of the state, where on the banks of the serene Godavari the poet Nannaya Bhattaraka is said to have composed the first Telugu version of the Mahabharata. I walked over to the riverfront and found an early dawn fisherman cleaning his nets at Kotlingala Revu. It’s a huge bathing ghat in a state that prides itself in that sort of a thing, it’s said to be the biggest in the country. Haven’t you gone fishing yet, I called out but the whippy wind flung the words back at me. The fisherman noticed me and waded to the bank. We sat down on the tiled steps of the ghat for a chat as the first rays of the sun warmed the horizon. Potahabattula Nagaraju said he was a bit late today. He and his wife set out at 4 a.m. and return at 1 p.m. His prized catch is the bommidai, which is much sought after in the town. It’s a freshwater spiny eel Macrognathus panaculus. Today he hauled in 4 kg, an OK day. Nagaraju said he hasn’t been making much lately, perhaps Rs 300 per day. What were his hopes for the new year? If I get Rs 500 per day, I’d be happy, he said. He has two sons, the elder one in school and the younger one a toddler. He said he wouldn’t allow his sons to become fishermen. Except a better catch every day and a better life for my children, I have no other ambition in life, he said.
New Indian Express. 2017