Something fishy about 'Following Fish: Travels Around The Indian Coast'

Following Fish: Travels Around The Indian Coast
Samanth Subramanian
Penguin
167 pages
Rs250

Books have their ‘aha’ moments. Following Fish: Travels Around The Indian Coast, a collection of nine essays by journalist Samanth Subramanian has its on page 63 of the book.

In an essay titled ‘On an odyssey through toddy shops’ and based on the toddy shops of Kerala, Subramanian quotes his friend Mahesh Thampy, “‘You have to remember, most of the people who go to these (toddy) shops just want to get high as fast as possible and leave,’ said Thampy. ‘Nobody wants to sit around and drink the good stuff. Which is why there is so much bad liquor floating around, so many newspaper headlines of blindness or even death because of illicit alcohol.’ He told me one fantastic story of sitting in a bar in Trivandrum. ‘Suddenly there was a power cut, and the lights went out. In the silence, one agonised voice cried out: ‘Oh my god! I’ve gone blind!’”

The book starts with an essay on West Bengal and then moves along the coastline all the way to Gujarat. The first essay deals with the typical Bengali’s obsession with the perfect ilish mach (or hilsa fish as lesser mortals call it). Is the hilsa found in the waters of the Ganga better? Or  does the Padma offer better hilsa? In fact, Subramanian explains the difference between the hilsa found in the two rivers. Apparently, the fish from the Padma is fatter and oilier.

Along the way, he keeps sampling shorshe ilish (hisla cooked in mustard) wherever he goes.

The second essay deals with the Bathini Goud family of Hyderabad who offer a medicine stuffed in a murrel fish once every year to asthma patients. It’s a well researched essay that addresses the issue of whether the medicine actually has any benefit or is just a matter of belief.

Subramanian’s essay on the drinking habits of Kerela is the best of the lot. Even here, the focus is on the highly spiced karimeen fish offered along with toddy. The extra spice apparently gets people to order more toddy and makes perfect business sense.

The search for the perfect fish leads Subramanian to Mangalore, Goa and then Mumbai, where a lady running a small gomantak restaurant explains to him the difference between the gomantak and the malwani cuisines. A recurring theme in the book is Subramanian’s concern about over-fishing by trawlers, which are driving the smaller fishermen out of business across India.

The last piece, about Gujarat, talks about the huge boat-building trade in the state. Ironically enough, Gujarat being a primarily vegetarian state, the author does not get to sample any fish delicacies.

Ultimately, Subramanian concludes, “fishing is still elemental in the most elemental sense of the word — an activity composed of water and air and light and space, all arranged in precarious balance around the central idea of a man in a boat, waiting for a bite.” Surely a book worth biting into.