How is the sea cloud waves and human beings interconnected in The Coromandel Fishers?

Answer 1

Coromandel Fishers - A Poem by Sarojini Devi ( India , 1879-1959)

Sarojini Devi was born in India and educated in London, Cambridge. She was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and became the president of the Indian National Congress in 1925. The Golden Threshold, The Bird Of Time, The Broken Wing and The Feather Of Dawn are four of her collections of poems. Her liquid tongue gained her the name, The Nightingale Of India. Here she is singing about the life and attitude of the fishermen of the Coromandel coast on the Bay of Bengal. The poem is in the form of a fisherman addressing his brothren. The sea, cloud, waves and human beings are interconnected in Coromandel, as is everywhere else. This song is especially noted for it's rich musical content and the lines and words are perfectly synchronized with it's inborn tune and rhythm, which exactly imitates the movement and balancing of waves. We are tempted to see young Sarojini riding her tiny catamaran in the Bay of Bengal.

The Hindus have the habit of worshipping the morning Sun. In the very early dawn, the wakening sky is offering it's morning prayer to the Sun. The fishermen have to rise very early, before the first ray of the Sun reaches the sky. Even the wind would not have risen then. The wind lies fast asleep in the arms of the dawn, like a child that has cried all night. The idea is scientific, since the wind would rise only after the atmospheric temperature rises with Sun. After yesterday's fishing, the nets are spread on the shore for drying which have to be gathered. The catamarans are resting on the sand which have to be freed. Hasty but systematic preparations, and now it is time to go to capture the leaping wealth of the tide. Naturally, seeing all this, we would be forced to ask if it is their paternal property. Yes, not father's, but mother's. They have birth right over the abundant wealth of the sea since they are the sons of the sea.

Where sea-gulls call, fishes are in plenty. The fishermen hasten away without delay in the track of the sea-gull's call. Once there, their job is easy. They have no reason to fear the sea, wave or cloud. The sea is their mother, the cloud is their brother and the waves are their comrades all. In the evening they would be tossing with the waves somewhere in the mid-sea, where the sea god Neptune controls everything. They would be at the mercy of the waves. But they needn't fear. The Wind God who is all powerful and strong to hold even the storm by it's hair will hide (protect) their lives in his breast. Fatherly affection!

The fishermen have sweet attractions on the shore. The shade of the coconut glade, the scent of the mango groves and the sands lit by the full moon at night with the sound of the voices of their most beloved ones nearby are indeed sweet. But to the fishermen, the kiss of the spray wash and the dance of the wild waves are sweeter- so they long to be at sea. Towards the close of the poem we see the fisherman and his comrades, bathed in broad daylight, row to the blueishness of the horizon where the sky and sea are at play. Sometimes it is exciting, and true we are tempted, to imagine that the singer is the young poetess herself, alone, rowing her tender boat in the Bay Of Bengal.