Today was the first day that can really be called a monsoon day. The monsoons have been threatening to arrive for a few days now, sending pre-monsoon showers as messengers to sound Kerala for what lies ahead.

We made our way to breakfast as usual, only to be greeted with an overwhelming spectacle of a shoreline dotted with fishermen as far as the eye could see. The men heaving in their nets must have numbered over twenty thousand! The horizon this morning was home to a hundred plus boats sprinkled beyond the tidal break at around 50 to 100 yards. The vigour and involvement of these fishermen seemed undeterred by the overcast sky. The onset of the monsoon didn’t seem to summon a need for a re-organised workday or work method.

It was almost like were taken in a back in time to a scene from a 1950's Biblical epic- the boats both in the sea as well as those perched on the beach, bore a design that hasn't been changed in centuries. In the sea the men still rowed with oars and on the waters edge the men still pulled the ropes with bare hands and bare feet.

The rain broke within five minutes of the sky being overcast disrupting the calm of an otherwise lovely morning. We did what seemed to be the most obvious thing to do and ran for shelter in the restaurant of our three star resort. We spent the next ten minutes re-organising ourselves to the changed weather conditions, only to get back to our roles as voyeurs. We found the men fishing on the beach and in the sea still continued uninterrupted by the changed circumstances- they continued pulling and rowing and fishing. The only thing that changed in our spectacle was a mist of the rain as it blew in from across the sea between them and us. The fish can’t tell if its raining or not and food still has to be put on the table and no doubt this is the way it has been for years.

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