Hi, I am a Mariambika. I am a fishing boat. I am a native of Kerala and I live in the Kochi coast near Vypin where I spend most of my day. My normal day is very routine. My master, Rajan comes for me when it is still dark. We go to sea and there, I see the sun come up. For a few hours there, I am the happiest because I am fulfilling my destiny. Once we are out for some distance, he throws out something and he lifts it full of fish. I feel very sad for them because they have such great stories that I will never hear. Most of the things that I know, they told me. They know so much, the fish. They tell great stories of the bottoms and the distances. They hate humans very much. Even Rajan. I know that that is because humans kill fish. But nowadays the fish hate them even more. The fish tell me that sometimes the humans kill even the children. When I hear of that, I feel like smacking them hard, the monsters. Sometimes I even think of rolling over and sinking Rajan. But then I feel bad for being so horrid. After all, Rajan isn’t doing those kind of things. Also that will make people sad. I have seen the response on the people on the land when one of them doesn’t turn up after going to sea. I ask the fish to look for the boat and they usually tell me some time later that they saw it on the bottoms. It’s the worst thing to see. The women cry hard and the children too. Then we all have to go out again to look for the missing one, but we rarely find them. Sometimes, we do. They might have decided to fish for longer or have got lost. Sometimes, the boats will be in pain and the man might have just been lucky to have been found by the metal ones. Rajan and the rest are always so nice to the people in the metal ones. They seem to think that the metal ones will look after them. Sometimes, people who look like those in the metal ones, come to the beach to see the men. And they are treated as great heroes. Don’t the humans understand that only the Mother Sea can protect them? I don’t know. Anyway, we come back to the beach some time after the sun is up but before it gets hot. The men put all the fish and another man comes to take it away. He also gives Rajan something, which he gives to the other men on the boat as well. I don’t know what it is but they all seem to want more of it and treat it with great respect. The men then do tie the holes in the thing the fish hate. And talk. They say all kinds of things. Sometimes, it will be about their ‘wife’ or about their ‘children’. I don’t know what ‘wife’s are but I think ‘children’ are the small humans that seem a lot happier than the big ones. And the things they do. They take the earth and make things out of it. Or they run up and down the beach. But sometimes they are followed by different looking big humans. They often have only a single cloth around them and in these cases always seem to carry a thin thing. And when these are behind the children, they are always looking sad and making a horrible noise especially when the draped ones move the thing fast. It breaks the heart and makes one want to take the child to the Mother Sea. But I can't, of course. So I look on in despair as these terrible things happen.
That is how my day looks like. Anyway, the reason I put up with this stupid man (the author) who doesn’t even know how to write his own language is to tell you the story of a certain few days from long ago. Now the Mother Sea is horrible thing. She does exactly what she wants and lets nothing stand in her way. I have seen my friends at them bottom and the things She sometimes does to the humans and their things. I have even heard from the other boats of the time She came to visit the beaches. A lot of men and boats died that day. But the boats of those lands tell me (through the fish and very occasionally when we meet at the sea) that those places look the same as they did before the Mother Sea came to visit. But in this case the Sea seemed to be coming out having somehow been caught up in the wrong place. The little sea was missing it Mother and wanted her back; violently.
From what I heard the boatmen say, all this started when it rained. I hate rains. They come from the sea and fall everywhere. On those days, we can't go to sea. I can't make myself useful. And the water falls inside of me. I don’t know if you have ever had water inside of you but it's horrible. And you feel really bad until the Sun comes out and we are dry again. It continued on for many days in a row and then they took me and put me in a ‘lorry’. Putting me in was a long process. First they lifted me up. This took a lot of people. I was used to being pushed up the beach and used to think that this was such a great effort. Until I saw this. About 20 people stood around me and lifted me almost half a man’s height to the flat part of the ‘lorry’. Then I was tied down with what was quite likely the longest rope I had ever seen. Then they lifted me with a huge arm kind of thing which they called a “crane” for some reason. Stupid humans dont seem to realise that a crane is a bird. I know because sometimes I see them fly over me when we fish. After that I went for the longest trip of my life. The lorry was going at full speed and I could see water. The water was splashing away from the round things on which the lorry stood. And the lorry was going fast. Really fast. I really don't know why they were so anxious. People standing on both sides of us looking on. Their expression was like they had never seen such a thing. And then I saw that the water was getting deeper in some places as we went on. The lorries were smashing more water away and the lorry was going faster and slowing down less. Maybe they want me to swim in this water I thought. Later I learnt that I was right.
We stopped when we reached a junction. Here, another ‘crane’ set us on the ground. Rajan came and we were off. The water was very rough and there were too many things in the way. We set off with three or four people in the boat. We would go down small streets and people would call out to us. The people in the boat would wade out and get them.They were always very very happy we were there. They all appeared to have lost hope. We would do this for a couple of streets and it would start becoming heavy. Then we would turn back and we would drop off the people at some of the dry places where lots of people were waiting. They would all climb out and look tired and sad at the same time. Their lives had just been taken by the water. Their dry paradise was now underwater. Their hopes and dreams seemed to have gone with it. In some of the deeper places, the people were on the roof and waved at every one of the noisy birds that suddenly seemed very plentiful. I have never seen these birds before. They were black like the 'crows' that come to sit on me when no one is watching. We were very careful to avoid all the fixed things. Hit some of these and there would be a hole in my body and we would all sink. A few of the boats that came back did have holes. Their owners had been careless. This is something that makes me angry about the whole thing. Why should we, the boats and our masters the fishermen, the people of the great seas be forced to go around in these fast flowing and constricted places at such a great risk to life and limb. I also heard of a boat which the men abandoned because it was too badly damaged when it hit something. Think of that poor boat. It served it's master well for years and brought him back to safety with both life and fish and he was abandoned because of a little injury. The men seemed very interested in doing this work but what I want to know is this. These people don't care about you. They didn't come in the past when the sea came for us. Then why are we here when the sea came for them
All this talk of crashed boats made me really fearful of my health. We soldiered on for many a day till one day tragedy struck. We were going along when the rushing water pushed me to a side. I crashed straight into a wall and there appeared a hole on my side. My first response was fear. I was now definitely going to die. And then I felt a pain in my side and then numbness. I suddenly realised that my life and the lives of all the people sitting inside of me was in mortal danger. I adjusted to keep the hole above water. My master seeing what was happening instructed the people to help. In this manner with the hole carefully held above water we went back to the place where we took all the people. That night, I sat thinking about my fate now. I had saved those people, my master and myself. But I couldn't do that for long enough to go to the real sea. I would either be sold to someone who used me for firewood or my master would repair me. It all depended on whether my master loved me enough. As I sat thinking, I saw a huge light and from it appeared a woman.
I asked, "Who are you and why are you here?"
Peculiarly, She appeared to hear me as compared to the humans who can't. This meant that I usually don't try to talk to them. But I was so shocked by the appeared of the woman that I talked to her.
"What you did today has caught the attention of the gods. You saving those people with such courage is something that greatly appreciate. So they have asked me to grant one wish of yours. What do you wish for?"
I thought for a moment and then answered,"I want to be able to talk to humans."
”I can’t allow you to speak to all humans. It would out all of us celestial creatures.So I will make it so that only some people can understand you” said the devatha and disappeared.
Now it is kind of nice that no one could understand me because this experience would have made me look like a fool if I had told someone. That night, I slept well and the next day I woke up to my new life. I had a hole in my body. So I could no longer go out to help in the rescue operation. And I should tell you this. I had been hauled all the way from home to help rescue people from something called a ‘flood’. This is evidently when it rains too much and everything gets wet like my insides. These people were all so happy to see us because we were removing them from their homes to take to a safer place called ‘camp’. This is the place where I was. Now some of the smaller humans came to me and started climbing on me and doing all kinds of peculiar things. They seemed to get happiness from running about, climbing on things and talking to each other. These were the ‘children’ and this behaviour of theirs is called ‘playing’ though I don't really know why they were so happy. Evidently the humans didn't either. But they were a very welcome presence in the camp where everyone spent time being sad. Eventually the children got tired of playing and decided to just sit around. Then they discovered the hole in my body and started to break off pieces from them. Now this really hurt. I screamed in pain. The children stared around like they were shocked. They looked around as if trying to find who it was.
Wait, could they hear me? I said,”Can you hear me?”
”Who are you?” said the biggest of the children sounding a little afraid.
“I am the boat you were sitting near speaking.”
They came near me very carefully as if they were afraid.
“Were you the one who screamed?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you pinched me on my wound.” I said a little angrily.
“I am sorry,boat” said the child who had broken pieces off me.
“Its ok. Come and talk to me. You are the only ones who can”
And thus we became friends. I talked to the children and they played all over me. I told then stories of the sea and of how I had gotten there and they told me stories of ‘school’ where they went to get knowledge. They looked a lot like the camp. Evidently, the camp is actually a school where they let people stay for now. I told them about how I was visited by the goddess and surprisingly they seemed to believe me. They told me of how their parents did not believe that a boat. But somehow the little ones parents seemed to believe them. I don’t know if this was true or they were simply acting.
Anyway, we went on like this for almost 5 days. And then the rain stopped and the water went down. Then my master came and we got on the lorry and went back to the beach. I didn't even get to tell the children goodbye. But then again they are children. They think about me, maybe cry for some time and then go back to their happy playing. But it would always be something I regretted.
I could see that the rain had ended and that the water was dropping and yet I hadn't felt the need to say goodbye because I had expected to be left behind and abandoned. But my master took me with him back to the beach.
Anyway my master took me with him to the beach. I sat around for a few days on the beach and waited for something to happen. Eventually, He took me to the repair shop and got me repaired. In the beginning, I was really happy. I could now go to sea which I desperately wanted to do having sat around for so long.
And then I realised that my boon was gone. I could not understand all that the humans were saying like before. This made me really sad and I started to cry. Of course none of the humans could hear me. I went on like that for a long time. And then the woman in the light appeared again. She was like,”Why are you crying?”
Well, I just lost a boon for which I risked my life for. But I wasn't going to tell her that.
So I said,”Because I can’t talk to people anymore. Why did you take away the wish you granted me, evil one.”
“That is not true. There is one person whom you will meet to whom you can talk to. You should tell him the story.”
And so that is where I am now talking to the fool who can't write his language. This guy tells me that my master and his friends are getting something called a 'government job'. It evidently means that my master doesn't need to take me to sea anymore.In other words, I will get sold to the scrap dealer or maybe to some other guy soon. The ‘government job’ seems to be a reward for rescuing the land people during the ‘flood’. In the end the boats are the ones who lie unthanked for our role in this story. Even our men don't realise that we have lives. Then why would they thank us. When we get old, we get sold to some guy who will most likely tear us apart and use the parts for something else. That is how a boat's life is.true love doesn't have a happy ending….