On April 4, Anchuthengu, a sleepy fishing village along the coast of the Arabian Sea, about 30 km north of Thiruvananthapuram, threw itself into the usual morning bustle, with fishermen getting ready to venture into the sea after a gap of four days. Fishing activities had been suspended here after the ocean swell — triggered by a low-pressure area — flooded the beach and coastal hamlets.
Inside a hut that lies at the edge of the seafront, unprotected by a seawall, Bindu Paniyadima is trying hard to hold back her tears as she mops the floor where seawater had entered two days before. The flooding is not the reason though. It has been three months since her son, Tinu Paniyadima, left for Russia for a job. The 25-year-old was the sole breadwinner of the family after his father, Paniyadima of Koprakoodu, died three years ago in a freak accident on the beach. The incident pushed the family to a financial edge.
“I would not have allowed my son to go abroad, but we are deep in debt. We borrowed money from money lenders during the time of our daughter’s marriage in 2017. Later, when my husband was severely injured after the accident, we had to borrow money again,” says Bindu. She adds that the money lenders then began to send retrievers home. It was then that Tinu decided to go abroad.
