Partners on the lake - a Bhigwan experience with a difference

Bhigwan is not a place, it is a feeling that one is there.  A serene spot on the Ujjani Dam, normally Flamingoes, both Greater and Lesser, arrive here in flights.  And along with them the Great Indian Tourist.  All ethics goes out of the window and entitlement comes in.

Many of the fisherfolk are partners, presumably husband and wife, brother and sister, Mother and son… They take it in turns to row, lay the net, start the engine. Had the women heard of “emancipation”, or rights?  Did they even care? An honest day’s work is all that the team cared for.

An unpaid worker, nay, a labourer? Or was it a labour of love? Maybe it was neither, keep the money in the family, one less pair of hands to be paid for?

There is no gainsaying the dexterity of the duo, thin or portly, often a little boat but the two of them would change places, lay out the net, row, catch fish and perform all the tasks in the netting of fish.

The occasional bird catching fish, stealing it, from the fisherfolk. Though competing with the birds big and small, the fisherfolk respect the space of the birds.  Though I think there is enough for all.

Out before dawn, midday back home, and out in the evening again. Round the clock, seven days a week. Till the dry season when the lake became considerably smaller.  

And so, it goes on…