Rameshwaram, April 5 -- It seems like everyday business with the smell of salty sea water and fish at the boat jetty in Tamil Nadu's Rameshwaram but there is a new spirited chatter here on Katchatheevu island - only about 16 nautical miles from this point - which has come into focus after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a fortnight before Tamil Nadu goes to polls on April 19, blamed the Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (then led by Indira Gaandhi and M Karunanidhi, respectively) for ceding the Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka in 1974.

Edison Aruldas, who was born the same year when the island was ceded, accompanies his father on the boat to fish across Katchatheevu since he was six years old. He recalls a time when it was not so host...