Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (HB)

Udupi, Apr 15: The coastal people from the region celebrated ‘Souramana Ugadi’ in a unique manner with traditional fishing at Kumekere of Thottam here on Wednesday April, 15.

As per the tradition, this year also the youths of Thottam enjoyed the traditional fishing which marks the Ugadi festival in the region. The traditional fishing custom has three decades of history. It had stopped for a short period of time because of modernization.

Yathish Karkera, former president of Thenkanidiyur village panchayat, restarted the traditional fishing for the festivity.

Kumekere belonged to a Patel family of the village. The Patel family members took the initiative first, which was later carried out by the villagers to mark the new year celebration without any caste discrimination. After carrying out the fishing expedition, the villagers would go home and prepare fish curry for lunch.

The objective of this traditional fishing activity is to unite people of various communities and entertain the villagers.

Recalling the yesteryears, a local resident Sridhar said, "We used to celebrate the new year with the traditional fishing. The practice was stopped for sometime. But now we have begun this again. This year, we have caught comparatively less number of fish. There is a belief that fish should be caught only during this season."