August 2018, the worst flood in a century. The first boats to reach the drowning didn't come from the navy. They came off the backs of trucks, hired by fishermen with their own money.
They lifted six-metre country boats onto lorries and drove inland — to Ranni, to Chengannur, to places most of them had never seen. 669 boats. 65,000 people pulled out. In Pathanamthitta, around seven in ten of everyone rescued was rescued by fishermen. They arrived before the official teams did.
At Tanur, a boat sat too high above the water for three women to climb in. Jaisal K.P. went down on all fours in the flood and let them step on his back. Someone nearby can be heard on the video saying: step gently, that's a man, not a stone.
Afterwards the state offered them ₹3,000 a day, new boats, fuel. Many of them said no.
This is a community that governments and parts of Kerala society have long treated as expendable — fishing hamlets that get the sea wall last and the rebuilding money last.
On the day the water rose, they showed us what Kerala is made of.