Narali Purnima: How Mumbai’s traditional Koli community celebrates the sea
As Mumbai’s Koli community marks Narali Purnima and the return of the fishing season, Team Indulge Express walks through Worli Koliwada to explore the traditions, music, dance and deep relationship with the sea that define the festival
Mumbai is a city shaped by many communities, each contributing to its character and culture. Among its oldest are the Kolis, the city’s traditional fishing community, whose relationship with the sea goes back long before Mumbai became the metropolis it is today.
And perhaps the easiest way to understand their contribution is to look at our dining tables.
If you are a Mumbaikar enjoying a pomfret fry, surmai, crab masala or lobster, remember that someone from the Koli community took a boat out to sea, braved its uncertainties and brought that catch back to shore. For generations, the Kolis have been an important link between the sea and the seafood on our tables.
But if we have the Kolis to thank for the catch, who do the Kolis thank?
The sea.
On the occasion of Narali Purnima, Team Indulge Express walked through the lanes of Worli Koliwada to experience how the community celebrates its most significant festival. What we found was much more than a religious occasion. It was a celebration of a way of life.
For the Kolis, the sea is livelihood, nature, faith and identity. During the monsoon, fishing traditionally comes to a halt for nearly three months as the waters turn rough. Narali Purnima marks the traditional beginning of the new season, when fishermen prepare to return to the sea.
But in Worli Koliwada, the gratitude doesn’t stop at the water's edge.
The lanes were alive with Koli music and the beat of drums. Women stepped out in colourful traditional attire and jewellery, while live music brought people onto the streets to dance. In our conversations with residents, one feeling came through repeatedly: they wait for this day.
Perhaps because Narali Purnima gives the community a reason to celebrate everything that connects them — the sea, their livelihood, faith, food, traditions and, most importantly, one another.
For a community whose everyday life is shaped by the uncertainties of nature, there is something deeply moving about the way it celebrates. No elaborate spectacle is required. The streets, music, traditional clothes, dancing and people themselves are enough to transform the Koliwada into a place of extraordinary energy.
And that was perhaps the most striking thing to witness: how much joy can exist without excess. A community living close to the rhythms of nature celebrates with an abundance that has little to do with material wealth.
For a city that consumes the bounty of the sea every day, Narali Purnima offers a moment to look back at the people who bring it to our tables — and at the sea they have always known to respect.
Because for the Kolis, the sea doesn’t simply give them fish.
It gives them a way of life.
And once a year, they come together to say thank you.
