Before engines set the tempo, the rhythm of a fishing dhoni was kept by voice — verses that timed the pull of the line and passed the hours.
Most of those songs faded as the boats changed. A handful of elders still carry them, and one has begun writing the words down.
His students are a mix of the curious and the nostalgic, drawn as much to the stories between verses as to the melodies themselves.
The goal, he says, is not to freeze the songs in place but to make sure someone still knows how they go.
