Andamans - The emerald islands

My grandma, Thakuma as we used to call her loved to travel. From her small distant village in Assam she managed to travel across the country, post the death of her husband. I am talking about someone who were she alive today would have been about a hundred years old.

Her great regret in life was that she couldn’t manage to see the Andamans. Travel to the distant islands was not so easy in those days and by the time things got better her children wouldn’t allow her to travel alone.

So when I saw the islands for the first time I silently dedicated that moment to Thakuma.

Deep blue seas running on for miles on end and then you suddenly spot the startling green in the midst. As the plane approaches the islands, one is startled by the contrast in the colours and the fact that the green seems to shoot straight out of the sea, so dense are the jungles.

That is the first view of the cluster of about 572 islands which make up the distant Union territory we had read of in school books as Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 1200 kms from the mainland it takes a while to adjust to the thought of this distant land as a part of India too.

The plane flies over almost the whole of the Andamans before finally landing at Port Blair. The outside temperature comes as a surprise at 33 degrees its way too hot but then what can be expected from a place which is about 10 degrees separated from the equator?

We had booked ourselves into a package trip so botheration like hotels, travel, transport, tickets and what-to-do-next were taken care of by others. We were left to only ooh - aah about the beauty and tranquility of the place. And of course joke about a few co-travelers who were too demanding or lazy bums who couldn’t ever join the group in time.

I was determined to have a good time so decided to ignore these things.

We were taken across to various islands by ferry and ship. This was the first time I experienced what being out in the open sea felt like. Saw flying fish leap away from the wake of our ship, saw the waters turn different shades before regaining their tranquility which was lost momentarily by our passage.

An experienced sea-man warned against watching the waters for too long since they have been known to do strange things to people. People for apparently no reason have jumped in probably mesmerized by the beauty and wanting to be a part of it.

A chance encounter with a woman almost my age who runs a food joint called German Bakery at Havelock Island and serves the most tempting wood oven pizzas brought to life the hardships of the first settlers. As she, a second generation islander, told stories of how the first 40 families that were brought in to inhabit the island, had toiled to form a semblance of life from back home in the mainland in the wilderness of the islands. The forest had been cleared to make space for farming and settlements.

Back to Port Blair and then on to the coral island the next day, I experienced snorkeling though was really worried I wouldn’t be able to see a thing with my near blind eyes. But I did manage to see quite a bit thanks to the magnifying ability of the snorkeling masks. Awesome corals of every hue and colour we can think of, only so much more beautiful and untouched than anything we see on land. Various shapes from the human brain to mushrooms, flowers and what not. The small pieces I had collected on the beaches paled in comparison to the real thing.

Once when water entered my mask and I looked up to clear it I realized that we were actually out in the open sea at least a km away from the beach, panic set in, for both of us are non-swimmers, the snorkeling master's gentle tug brought my attention back to the undersea world and I forget my fear in the wonders under water.

Beautiful fishes the kind I had only seen on Geographic and Discovery were playing around, whole schools of them moving at times in solemn procession at times playful like children out in recess.

Wish I had the words to describe the many sights.

I am back at home now, having turned a very dark brown thanks to the sun and sea water. If you saw me you could easily mistake me for an African but am not complaining.

The sights I saw, the beauty I lived in for five days will forever stay with me though the tanning would fade.





P.S: You may wonder why there is no mention of Cellular Jail here. Thats because its a memorial to a very tortured past and it greatly disturbed me.
We were not able to take in the Jarawa Tribal reserve - anyone else planning a trip to Andamans do try to take that in too. Its about 120 kms from main Port Blair by road (a four hour drive) and worth a visit.