‘Raapan’(Fishing)- Off Alphonso Mango season
While going to asleep that night I just recollected that I need to wake up early in the morning next day for Raapan. That was black moon on that night and sea was also silent with hardly any sound of surfs on the beach. Couple of hours back in the evening a gang of locals embarked upon fishing boat and pushed that into the Arabian sea. As I got the news I was very excited to go to beach next day morning. Stars were blinking that night to their fullest light. Lot of fish we were expecting next day. The fish variety is in abundant on our coast and especially near coastal are. Small fishermen hunt here for their daily food with the freshest catch every day. Quiet tough to catch fish for single person so the packs are better. The job become tougher during mango harvest period as the whole day is spent in the farms and evening goes into fishing. In Raapan many villagers come together hence no stress on few. It’s a fishing in good team spirit with equal bounty share for all. Everyone’s roles are allocated. One gang is pushing boat into seas, another spreading net for maximise the trap for fishes in typical circular formation starting from one end of beach and ending at another.
I started and reached the beach @430 am. That was winter night and morning cool breeze just about to start. Stars were still twinkling in the clear skies. The Gaaj of Surf is sounding silent and Sea was flat that day. No rush the waves had to hit the fortification of Vijaydurg fort. They were very gentle as they whispering to the tall red walls. The fort standing tall for many centuries now and its warriors still settled here in the villages around. Those were the times of the naval warfare this place had observed on this Arabian sea. The medieval trades were at its peak from all over the world. Our now anchored on the coast and its nets were still at the sea with the hope of fish in plenty in it. We wrapped the ropes of net around our waist and started pulling the nets on the beach. We were the gang of pullers around 20 on the either ends of the net. Nets were dragging themselves on the sea bed and collecting the loot in them. The scene I enjoyed the most is rhythm of pullers step by step bending their knees and pulling the nets towards the shore with their feet playing with the golden sand on the beach. The dawn is getting bit foggy and chilly with breeze. We can now see the fish are bouncing back from the nets. The net was fully loaded with the fish. The treasure was in front of our eyes. The night round efforts were paid off. Under sized fish were separated and send back to the seas. Our shares were distributed. All of us feeling fortunate. The haze was disappearing and the time passed by so quickly the first rays of Red Sun strikes us for that precious moment.
