101) Swimming against the tide

The sun rose majestically from the Bay of Bengal and even before it made its appearance; the fishermen are out into the sea. For any daily walker to the beach, the sight of the sun against the background of the raging sea, blowing wind to the sound of roar as the fisherman sail in their wooden rafts with a sole pole to steer is a picture perfect timeless beauty.

Our story pertains to a woman in the nearby hamlet and hers is a tale of indomitable spirit. N Shanthakumari still retains her maiden initials even after marriage. If you thought that was a bold feminist stance then consider this: she is a Ph.d and she hails from the humble fisherman community.

Except an uncle who is a MA, no member of her family has gone beyond school; several drop outs even earlier. The plight of a girl whose family subsisted by living off the sea is hard to imagine, especially when they have to scrap together to meet both ends meet. Where one goes to bed on a hungry stomach on most days, education can never a priority.

She says,” Right from the beginning there were financial difficulties. Every term I had to pawn my mother’s jewels to pay tuition fees. It was so easy to stop but then I wanted to be someone in life. Poverty was just another hurdle. Convincing my skeptical parents was another. They feared that once I study higher, I would grow too big for my boots and marry out of caste. I agreed to marry a boy of their choice to mitigate their doubts”.

They parents selected a fisherman who was school dropout after V standard and Shantha agreed for matrimony on one condition,” I made it clear to my would-be husband and mother-in-law that I must be allowed to continue with my studies”.

With such grit and resolve, her studies progressed and there was no looking back. That’s when the tsunami struck the coast in 2004 and the lives of fisherman were turned upside down. In some villages, entire communities were washed into the sea while the loss of boats and nets were almost everywhere. The scale of the disaster was huge and many NGOs from round the world came to offer assistance.

Shanthakumari had, by now, a baby girl and a boy. Luckily in their hamlet, there was only loss to property and no loss of life. She moved into a temporary shelter, a local community centre, and helped other emotionally drained families. Losing boats and nets is loss of livelihood and to survive on doles did not do the pride or self respect any good.

Even while the family was in such doldrums, our heroine never lost sight of her thesis project. Her chosen subject was “fisherman of Nagapattinam” with detailed analysis of their religious and social practices and how the tsunami affected their livelihood. The subject was closed to her heart and it was in a way, the story of her own community and her life. It was an odd sight to see a bright woman conducting interviews when the others were crest fallen and distraught, facing up to one of their greatest challenge. Shantha too was equally overwrought by the scale of havoc but channelized her time and energy to a productive pursuit.

That was in 2005 and now these days, she can be found teaching in AVC College, Mayiladuthurai. Her income quite nicely supplements her husband’s varying income from the sea.

She has created a nice small world for her family and her kids now go to the best schools in town. Even her seafaring husband says: “I want my children to take after my wife. It is better to make one’s mark on the world through one’s intelligence than be perched dangerously from a boat looking for fish”. (641 words).