Every village community has its rituals, its little processions and traditions, its own endearing customs and mores. Things that have been heaved from the past into the present often undergo interesting changes in the process. So much so that many references and signs become blurred over time, sometimes so blurred that they can suddenly come to mean the very opposite of what they originally meant. One such case is the marsh, whose appearance on the coast had once struck anxiety and fear into the hearts of local fisherfolk, which suddenly gets transformed into the scene of fishermen in fishing boats. Thus, the dark enemy that had once threatened the land now proudly dons the colours of the nation.
In the collective imagination of the village, however, it still definitely signifies that which long meant the other.
First Publication: 5-2011
Modifications: 17-2-2012, 19-2-2012