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When the postman knocked
I was almost sure that the picture that was published with Miscellany on November 12 would remind someone of happier days and bring an answer to Josephine Felton's query. And I was not wrong. The postman's knock brought a letter from C.D. Gopinath stating that "the picture brought back many happy memories", but was taken neither at Ennore nor at Pulicat.
It was taken, says Gopinath, at Muthukur, on the coast north of Madras, near Nellore, where "Abboyi Naidu, an excellent angler", lived on an island in the estuary on a property he had named Angler's Paradise. Fishing enthusiasts used to come there from all over the country, recalls Gopinath, who was himself a regular, going there at least once a month, for many years, to fish.
Gopinath adds, "The fish in the picture are Bekti (Koduva in Tamil), which always gave the angler a good fight".
I'd single-quoted `Indian' in the piece I'd written because Josephine Felton had only referred to him as "one of their friends" and I thought he looked very much like a Belgian whom I'd seen in a couple of pictures of the time taken with the ladies at the Madras Club and sent to me in another connection.
But was he Belgian or Indian, I had wondered, seeing the veshti and thundu he was sporting. With Gopinath's letter, I can now safely remove the single quotes.
S.MUTHIAH
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