I noticed a new fishmonger in our hometown one morning the other day. He was wearing a blue and white striped sarong with a discolored old white vest and old black coloured hat on his head. There were nearly 10 kilograms of fish in two metal containers he carried with him. There were taro leaves placed at the bottom of containers and fish were packed irregularly over taro leaves. There were sand on fishes and he absolutely looked like arrived just after fishing at sea. I wondered our hometown is located far away from nearest beach and how he arrived here such early in the morning. Usually people in our area bought fish from shops. However this was a new experience for our city dwellers and fishmonger could sell all his fish by noon.
With the lapse was time this traditional fishmonger became a common sight in Homagama. He turned up two or three times in every week. He carried more fresh fish for selling. He was a mobile fish monger and sold fish walking lane by lane and road by road.
One morning I happened to walk to town to buy some needs to a shop and I saw a strange three-wheeler stopped behind the shop. A familiar face came out the vehicle, the fishmonger wearing a denim trouser and ordinary shirt. He took off his denim trouser and wore an old sarong. Shifted himself to old vest and took his two old metal containers and placed few taro leaves at the bottom. Filled both containers with fish he brought in a regiform boxes with ice. Finally, he took a small sand bag out the vehicle and scattered sand on fish. He was an ordinary fishmonger who change his appearance to a traditional fishmonger and pretended he just arrived after fishing at sea!