Buy a Fishing Boat For Sridar

When I met Sri in 2009, he asked for the shirt off my back.

He's smaller than I am, and my shirt was big, even on me. The shirt did not fit him.

He had responsibilities for a young guy. His dad recently died, and he was living with his mother, across the lane from his uncle.

He had a boat.

"What I need is a motor," he told me.

I came home, bought him some cool shirts at Marshalls, and arranged for the hotel next door to deliver them to him when they arrived from the U.S. via UPS.

The hotel manager stole the shirts.

When I met him again in 2011, Sri was selling trinkets from a little hut next to the hotel to earn a living.

"Did you ever get a motor?" I asked.
"No, the boat was not good."
You can see the old boat that his dad left him in the photo below from 2009.

I bought some stuff from him for gifts back home, and went to his uncle's house for coffee, where I also bought some stuff for gifts back home. Some people from the Open Sky yatra might remember his uncle. I took some yoginis over to his house to buy some "yoga pants."

In 2015 I met his uncle once again, and went over to Sri's place to say hi. He was recently married and they were both living with his mom, across the lane from the uncle and his wife. The two families collaborated on their hardscrabble tourist trinket sales with Sri and his uncle as the purveyors. Sri and his wife looked like children to me. That's his wife on the left; his mom in the middle.

When I saw Sri again last year he informed me that his uncle had died suddenly of a heart attack, and his aunt had moved to Madurai to live with family. This left Sri as the solo breadwinner. He tried to sell me the buddha head, but I didn't have space to lug that thing around with me.

"Do you make a living selling this stuff?" I asked.

"What else can I do?" He asked me. "This is a fishing village. I am supposed to fish. I make more money selling to tourists than being a fisherman on someone else's boat. What I need is a boat."

Let's buy him a boat.

Sri when I met him in 2009. He asked for the shirt off my back.

Sri's uncle in 2015. A very likable guy. He died suddenly the next year.

An alternative fishing boat for fishing in the Bay of Bengal. I kid you not.

Another fishing alternative for guys with no other option. They would rather do this than take a portion of the sales from the captain of another boat.

Morning in the Devanari fishing village.

Sri with his wife and mom in 2015 "Live Like There's No Tomorrow."

Sri trying to sell the tourist a stone buddha head in 2017.

Fishing boats coming in at dawn, Devanari fishing village.


MORE PHOTOS & VIDEOS ARE HERE