Traveling is a bug that was in me when I was born, probably inherited from my father. In twenty years of extensive travel in India, what has fascinated me most are those small islands that dot the Bay of Bengal on the east coast of India. Yes, I am talking about the Andaman Islands. The Andaman Islands somehow seemed almost sinister, with images of being haunted, gloomy and terrifying, until my parents returned from a trip to Port Blair and told us about these serene islands. We immediately look forward to the first opportunity to take a break and check them out.

Finally, D-day came and we were all ready. We boarded the plane and to our surprise found that there were several empty seats. On enquiry, we learn that all the supplies for the Andaman, including newspapers and meat, come from the mainland, so there is always more cargo and fewer people.

Port Blair Airport is a small, old airport that was built in 1947. On the way to the hotel I noticed that there are none of the usual auto rickshaws that clatter through most Indian cities. There was only one traffic light in the whole town and the roads had more ups and downs than grade. All of this was amazing for a person like me who has lived in the coastal cities of Chennai and Mumbai.

The color of the sea was a pristine blue, a color he had not seen on any of the beaches in India. It was calm and beautiful. I was delighted with the fact that we were going to spend ten full days there. All we had to do was sit in the open restaurant, look at the sea, enjoy the cool breeze and feel good.

The Andaman Islands are a group of several islands, so most of our sightseeing was by boat. There are a total of more than 356 islands there. Even the oldest ferryman, Rathnam, had only seen 200 of them. I figured that ten days probably wouldn’t be long enough to get a complete picture of this place, so I started storing every sight, every sound, and every smell. The sound and light show in the jail sent a shiver down my spine. (This trip was before the movie ‘Kalapani’ was released.) Realizing that here lived, fought, suffered and even died those who fought for our Independence, left an impact.

Q:

One thing that left a major impact on the author was……………

• 1
  the serenity of the place
• 2
  the wholesome experience
• 3
  vastness of the islands
• 4
  the realisation that freedom fighters had lived, struggled and died there