To catch fish with the towel, you need 2 people. The trick is to hold the towel on either side and place it all the way to the bottom of the creek. When the unsuspecting fish swim over the top of the towel, lift the towel quickly and the fish get trapped in the middle and the waater drains out from the towel.
Ammachi and I walked to the shallow end of the creek. Ammachi hitched up her mundu , so it won’t get wet. It was the first time I saw her legs. Her veins were all bulging out.
“Why does all the veins stick out like that on your leg Ammachi?”
“Are you here to catch the fish or to see my legs?”
“Tell me Ammachi, please.”I begged
“It is varicose veins Nina”
“What is varicose vein Ammachi”.
“He is the older brother of Pathrose vein”
“Go Ammachi, stop teasing me and tell me what is varicose vein.”
“I don’t know what is it Nina, one day when you become a Dr, you will learn what it is and then you will come and tell me”.
“I am not going to become a Dr.” I told her
“Then what are you going to do?”
“I am going to have my own chayakada (corner tea shop)!”.
“Oh really, why?”
“So I can eat all the parippuvada and bonda (fritters)”.
“Very good idea Nina, so we will have our own chayakada (tea shop) and we will be the owner and the customer right?.”
“Correct Ammachi, you know something, you make all the parippuvada and I will manage the cash counter” I told her.
“Very good idea Nina.”
Ammachi and I slowly waded in to the water. we looked for a shallow spot. The water was swift flowing and I removed my Hawai chappal and kept in on the bank. I didn’t want to lose my precious chappal in the swift current.
“Now keep quiet and hold the end of the towel. And stand still” She instructed.
We slowly lowered the towel to the bottom of the creek and waited. At first the fish were suspicious. They came near the towel and swam of. Then they become confident and started swimming over the towel and quickly Ammachi and I lifted the towel together.
There were more that 20 small tiny fish stuck in the towel. They were jumping up and down. The sliver colour on their body was glittering. It was the most beautiful sight. Ammachi placed the towel back in the water and all the fish I caught swam of
“Why did you do that?” I was upset with her
“Nina, they will die.”
“So?”
“You don’t kill unnecessarily”.
“But we make fish curry,we kill the fish in the kitchen” I argued
“Ofcourse, we do. That is our necessity. We need food. But this small fish, they are not our food. They haven’t even had a chance to live yet.”
At that moment I didn’t understand what my grandmother was trying to tell me. Why is it ok to kill the big fish and make curry and not ok to kill the small fish. Either way it is going to die.
I suddenly lost my interest in fishing. There was no joy in catching and then releasing the fish and I told Ammachi
“Let us go back.”
Ammachi must have known I was upset.
“Do you know the story of three fish?” She asked me
“Which story?”
“The one about intelligent, fate and wise?”
“No I don’t”
“Come let us sit here”, Both of us sat on the rocks.
Ammachi began telling me the story
“Once there were three fish that lived in the lake, one was intelligent, he used his brains every time, the other was wise, he did everything after thinking and analysing about it, the third one believed in fate and thought what ever has to happen will happen.”
“One day the wise fish overheard the fisherman discussing with his son and telling”this lake is full of fish, we will cast our net tomorrow here.”
“The wise fish quickly went to his friends and told them
“I think we should leave the lake immediately, for the fisherman will cast the net tomorrow”
The intelligent one told
“I was born here and I am smart, I will find a way out, if I am caught in the nets tomorrow”
The fate fish told
“If I am to die, I will and I am not running away from my fate”
“The wise fish swam away that day to the canal. Ther next morning the fisher man returned and cast his nets. Both the intelligent and fate fish were caught in the net”
“What do you think happend next Nina?” Ammachi asked me
“don’t know, you tell me quick”
“The intelligent one quickly pretended he is dead and the fisher man thought he caught a dead fish and threw it out of his net back in to the lake”
“What happend to the fate fish?”I asked her
“He just jumped up and down and died”.
“What are you Nina, intelligent, wise or fate fish?”
I looked at her, trying to think of a smart answer.
Ammachi must have felt that the answer is tricky.
“Nina, if you are wise, you wouldn’t fish for small fish in the creek, if you are intelligent, you will release the little fish and if you believe in fate, you will spend many years without food, as you would have killed all the little fish, that would have grown big and suitable for making curry”.
At that moment I understood that each of my activity will affect me in the long term. I wanted to be an intelligent fish
ammachi had a great way to explain everything.
Your ammachi explained things to you so well. It is true that sometimes we decide our own fate.
in those childhood days we all wanted to become bus drivers, conductors, tea shop owner etc…LOL…true life…
wise decision,little Nina!
Hee hee your grandma is not all wisdom but wit too…pathrose vein ..rofl.
that was too good.
and she did know much earlier that you were to become a doctor.
It’s funny how we all had small ambitions in the beginning.sometimes I wish I had stuck to them…i always wanted to be a lorry driver,the type which handles mud;)
talking about chayakkada,i love stopping by them on the drives in kerala to eat banana fritters….yummy!!
sometimes I make a nuisance,even today,when I am really greedy for them.:))
nice story with a good message
Cool. I was waiting to see what you are going to say about fishing. your blogs are very unpredictable and nice.
Our story is after catching the small fishes we put them into our well(at least 20 meters deep). we can see that most of them die after falling from 20meter height. A few manage to save their life.
But their fate was to be prey of bigger fishes in the well.
Later we catch fishes from the thodu and put them into paadam and vice versa 🙂
Njagalum oru tharam Naranathu bhranthanmar aayirunno !!!
Though I was not thought about chayakada earlier, Now I want to run a thattukada with a double role of owner and customer 😉
Keep writing,
YASJ.
varicose vein is the older brother of pathrose vein.. your ammachi sure had a nice sense of humour. and the story of the three fishes too was excellent
ammachi.. is very intelligent and very nice way to make things understand!!.. you follow the same rule for your kids?
oh your accounts are so nice, feeling better than easop, with content, theme, humor and life.. 🙂
maybe you could have kept a few small fish in small containers and watch them. have you tried fishing alone with the towel, with one end tied on your neck and bending down haha. miss those days when i used to go to the stream nearby and try for those wonderful fishes.
nostalgic.
Reminds me of the fishing me and brother used to do in the pond in our “tharavadu”.. we used to keep the small fishes in a big “chembu” which was kept in the “nadumuttam” of the tharavadu.. that was good old days…
“What is varicose vein Ammachi”.
“He is the older brother of Pathrose vein”
BTW u r ammahci had wit and wisdom 😀
Thanu:yes she did have avery special way to explain
Starry nights: did we?
Q8techdrive: wht you wanted to be, when you grow up?
Maya:I miss those thattukada and chaya kkada and the ethkka appam..I still want to have my own chayakkada!!!!
Vaik:Thank you for visiting my blog
YASJ: ee padaam enthuva? kandam/vayal ano? Did the well in your family home overflow during the monsoon?
Mathew: Ammachi was very funny..she always had a tharuthala for everything
Sujit: I taught my kids the same thing”hurt no living things” and they follow it
Rocksea: I have tried to keep them in a horlicks bottle.. they always died!
Monu: The chembu is the thingy you use for parboiling the rice right?
Nice story. Old childhood activities combined with ammachi’s wisdom and your narration is a great combination—irresistible like the karimpumkala karemeen pollichathu 🙂 My brother, sister and I used to do fishing in the canal (thodu) very near our house. Was fun.
maybe u should open a cute little chaykadda out there.it might be a great hit.and if you are thinking of running successful branches open one in mangalore.i will be a regular customer cos i hardly cook
plus in mangalore everyone’s past time is going out to eat
yes..chembu is the thing used for parboiling rice 🙂
Alexis: I wish I could find an enfield and ride it all the way to karimpumkala and drink some kallu and eat karimeen pollichathu, and ofcourse freak out the ordinary appachans who frequent there, who would shake their kashandi thala and say”kali kala vallabham”
Maya: Sarah’s murukkan/kappi/thattukada..buy one chaya one nagarnga muttai free!!!
Monu:pidi kitti..appol kuttakom and chembu same?
hey alex U dont have to anywhere to drink chaya kaappi murukku just visit http://www.chayakada.com