The Koli 26/11 Attacks

Sushma was a little girl who loved to eat fish, any fish she liked was cooked by her mother and it was fished by her father who went to sea to get the fish for Sushma's family and the rest of Mumbai. Sushma lives on Sassoon Dock and she even goes to a normal school, after school she helps her mom clean and cut the fresh fish. While she helps the other girls and fisherwoman her Aaji tells her friends wonderful stories about the past and present of their tribal community.

Today aaji will tell her about the 26/11 attacks.

On 26/11/08 a Koli trawler was captured. In that was aaji's brother's friend, he was the captain of the boat, but when he was coming back, a transport boat from Karachi, Pakistan full of terrorists threatened the Kolis to take them to Mumbai. the captain was scared that they would kill him but only at the end of the journey they did and they even threw him in the water to die. first the terrorists went to Leopold Cafeteria. the owner Leopold was hidden so luckily he did not get killed but many other did. after their work was done in the cafeteria they headed to Nariman house near to Sassoon Dock. they killed everyone except a tiny baby and his nanny. Aaji even told them that she saw the terror happening! the men had huge orange backpacks and guns. Soon in the dock a few kolis went to the boat in which the terrorists came on to see whether they got and fish, but no! instead they found blood droplets on the trawler, and they could not find anyone on the boat either. 

Sushma was curious to know more about it but Aaji did not budge. Aaji had a lot of work to do. She and Sushma's Maushi had to go and get the fresh batch of fish and dry them on the bamboo. the Prawns and shrimp are kept under the sun in a large basket, the Bombil/ Bombay Duck are dried on Bamboo and pomfret is first cleaned and then dried. Sushma wanted to go too, so she asked her Maushi if she could and she said yes! This was her first time drying fish, on the way there she met her father anchoring his boat and take out the fish.

Sushma loved her tribal history, and she knew alot about it, but she wanted to know more that's why she always loved aaji's stories.