On the occasion of Christmas, the season when good cheer and hope spring eternal in the human breast, Mathrubhumi News aired ‘Kadal Nakshatrangal’ on the trials and tribulations of our fisher folk. It was also a more than meet tribute to the valourous kinship they displayed, when of their own volition they gave of themselves is a surfeit of selfless fellow-feeling when Kerala was deluged. Without care or concern for their own lives or costly equipment they were saviours of souls in distress, as if a civilian navy. That exemplary act of altruism shamed the callous disregard the wider society had earlier professed towards them in their time of woe during cyclone Ockhi. Mainstream Kerala, including the media, showed only half-hearted engagement in reconstructing the cyclone-ravaged areas. With leaden eyes they mourn those of their ilk who have met a watery grave. It remains a fact that these survivors are still at a definite disadvantage in terms of rebuilding their livelihoods. These perpetual “outliers” even in the much-touted ‘Kerala Model of Development’ are assigned only a lower status within social groupings in Kerala. They yearn for the days of yore, when the sea used to be a bounteous provider in contrast to the inhospitable present of dwindling catches and an uncertain future for their children, whom they are wary of following the traditional livelihood. Ambrose, Dayanandan, Janette, Merin, Rahim, Sebastian, Suni, Suresh and Walter belongs to the tribe that Pope Francis so evocatively portrayed as “artisans of the common good,” in his new year’s eve homily, last year. Fishing communities also embody ‘social capital’ - interpersonal relations, social networks, shared sense of identity and trust within a society – that serve as the core engine for a swift and robust recovery from natural calamities. Rafeeq Ahammed has penned the theme song, scored by Veert Raag.