POMFI'S SALVATION

POMFI’S SALVATION
(Pomfi is a fish called Pomfret in English, Aakoli in Malayalam and Vavva in Tamil)

Pomfi’! heard my mom calling me for the first
So was I called by all around .
Spare me a couple of minutes
for, I have a story of salvation to tell.

Indian coast is where we hail from.
Adventure is our ancestral traits
Like the Keralits spread on earth,
are we Aukolies around the globe.

Born in the family of Pomfa and Pomma
ending the monsoon at kerala’s coast,
I was in a school of a thousand Pomies,
who looked alike in size and shape.

We have an ocean deep and vast
But no second passes in peace.
Always we move in groups
Guarded by the elders around.

Jealous we look at men,
sleeping on the shore and boats
As never can we wink an eye
with the dangers hovering around.

We keep our eyes open
from the time of birth till death
to guard us from the monsters
starving for our flesh and blood.

We keep our eyes open
after our death too,
to see that we are eaten,
only by a man born on land.

For, if we fall a prey to
any thing born in the sea
We shall be born back in sea
said the Grand Ma.

Fortunate, if we are,
to fall a prey to a man on land
We shall be born back as a man
says every one in sea.

How to make it happen
remains a mystery in sea
As no one who fell pray to man,
is found back in sea.

On getting my fins strong
I set out my journey in sea
to unveil the mystery
of getting caught by a man.

Met many on the way
discussed and debated.
Yet my question remained
Unanswered all the time

Till I met a saintly Pomfi
at the coastal Pondy
Who taught me the trick of
getting into a fishing net?

So am I here,
in the hands of a man
dead and stiff
still keeping my eyes open

to see that I am eaten

to call it a great day,
of salvation of this Pomfi,
from further birth in Sea.

The first awathar merging into the last may be taken as the God’s wish.