We were sitting on the balcony of our room, reading, not doing much, which pretty much is the point of being here … when Leah spotted several figures swimming in the Indian Ocean, about the same distance from shore she had been the day before.

These swimmers, however, were local guys, teens, by the look of it, and they were well-prepared, with fins, masks and snorkels.

We watched them, all four of them, work from our right to left, parallel to the beach, and they did more than a little diving, when they weren’t face-down in the water,  looking through their masks.

A half-hour later, they came out of the waters and …

One was carrying a canvas bag, and as they paraded past us on the ribbon of sand, about 20 feet away, he plunged his arm into the bag and pulled out what looked like a giant marine spider.

A lobster, of course. They had been scanning the floor of the ocean for them, and had espied at least two of the crustaceans.

They gestured towards us in a “are you interested?” sort of motion, and we smiled and shook our heads. It’s not like we could prepare lobsters for eating in our room.

They continued down the beach, apparently lured by the sound of the large wedding that was going on at the ground floor. (A Buddhist wedding, with about 60 guests, that lasted at least seven hours.) And it turned out to be a good move by the divers.

At about 4:30 p.m. I heard a knock at the door, and there was the young woman who generally deals with foreign guests because her English is the most robust. She had one of the male porters/waiters with her, and he extracted one of the lobsters, for display, and she asked if we wanted to have them for dinner.

After some quick consultation, which included a price (2,000 rupees each, about $20, for lobster and side dishes), and after I wondered how much mark-up was involved, and how much the divers had received, we said, “Sure, as long as they are grilled and not sauteed …” and we had a deal.

The lobsters here are not big. Far smaller than what you would see from, say, Maine. Perhaps eight inches from eye stalks to tail. And no claws. I suppose they would be known as spiny lobsters because of their long tentacles.

At 6:30 we went downstairs to our table in the corner (it was pouring rain again), and most of the evidence of the wedding party had been cleaned up.

We will try to post the photo of the lobster on a plate, with saffron rice and a vegetable salad … but the internet connection here may not support it.

Anyway, our lobster was spectacularly fresh, having been in the ocean until about three hours before we sat down. In a region where you always wonder about the freshness of any fruits de  mer, in the heat, it was good to know the provenance of these two lobsters: Practically from under our balcony.