For reasons my guide Gita does not understand, after the tsunami the fishermen were told to stop using the catamarans they have been using for centuries, and to use only fiberglass boats (see right).

About catamarans, stolen from Wikipedia:
The word catamaran comes from the Tamil language, in which the word kattumaram means "logs bound together". The catamaran was the invention of the paravas, an aristocratic fishing community in the southern coast of Tamilnadu, India. Catamarans were used by the ancient Tamil Chola dynasty as early as 5th century AD for moving their fleets to conquer such south-east Asian regions as Burma, Indonesia and Malaysia.