Dream Trip 2008: August

Great Travel Moment

I was talking to my grandmother when this fisherwoman walked by with her wares shouting "meina, meina" (fish, fish). She stopped by the stairs of our house in Kerala, India so my grandma could examine the morning's fresh catch. I snapped this picture as the woman weighed and wrapped the fish that my grandmother selected with a discriminate eye. There are 1.6 million women in India that survive by the catching and selling of fish. These women rise before dawn and go to the market to gather the freshest fish. Then they walk from house to house with a fish basket delicately balanced on their heads hoping the lady of the manor will buy their goods. There is a certain caste that sell fish and therefore this way of living has been handed down this fisherwoman's family for generations. Modernization is threatening the fisherwomen's way of life. Private companies are buying the fish that locals used to sell. I still recall the smell of the saltwater fish.