Andamans - Tropical Paradise

Last week we went to the Andamans. Our daughter Diya was joining the masters course in Marine Biology of the Pondicherry University which is offered from its campus in Port Blair. We went there for the ostensible purpose of settling her in, but more importantly we wanted to see a new and exotic place, and spend some time together. We also wanted to make up for the very little parenting that we had done during the last two years while she had roamed about the cities and beaches of Southern India, familiarising herself with the discipline and relevant researchers.

Sea, volcanic rocks on the coast line and swaying palms

We left for Port Blair, with little idea of what to expect.  While shopping to equip Diya for her stay there we had pondered about what to get and what one could safely assume would be available there. Was there a Bata shop there in Port Blair? Better not take chances, and Diya bought the pair of sneakers she wanted in Delhi itself. Would there be ATMs, or a branch of Union Bank, where we banked? We took the chance and went with our plastic money and cheque book hoping that the upgrading of banking systems around the country allow us to withdraw money locally to make the necessary deposits and payments related to her admission.

 As the plane descended from the clouds the sea and islands became visible. Diya started taking pictures of the dark islands ringed with a deep aquamarine blue. I tried to match what I saw with my mental picture of the Maldives as I had visited Male some years ago. As we came closer and came thundering to a halt on the runway I realised the picture was entirely different. Male is tiny – there was no space on the island for the airport, which was on a neighbouring island and the runway seemed to dip into the sea. Here it didn’t seem like an island at all with building nestling among what appeared to be coconut palms all around.  The terrain was thickly forested and hilly. The arrival section of the airport was small but well appointed with a very efficient prepaid taxi service and soon we were settled in our suite in a guest house.

Dwarfed by the huge trees with buttress roots

Over the next four days we slowly got acquainted with Port Blair and its surroundings and fell in love with the place. The South Andaman island on which Port Blair is situated, is a large landmass, and you when you can’t see the sea, the sense we got was that we were in the hills – not in the Himalayas but probably in the north east. The vegetation was so luxuriously thick and green - with the trees tall and stately and a layered under growth of a profusion of bushes and climbers. However you are hardly ever very far from a view of the sea or of water flowing down a creek to the sea. We took a thirty kilometre drive to the southern-most point of the island – chidiya tapu and the road wound through hills and went past the shoreline and we passed many small clusters of houses and shops with quaint names like Burmanala and Rangachang.

Port Blair has sea all around, but let that not fool anyone that there are beaches everywhere as well. The city has a tiny beach called Corvyn’s Cove and we drove past it on our way to the Chidiya Tapu, which is one of the few beaches on the island. This is because the islands are volcanic and what we could make out was that sandy beaches were only found where the coast line curved in to create sheltered, tucked in spots. The Chidiya tapu beach is not big or long as beaches go, but has an interesting character.  First the approach to the beach is by crossing a hilly ridge covered with thick forests. The beach is closed in and guarded and is ringed by thick forest. There are many large trees lying uprooted on the sand like giant sculpture. We had the beach to ourselves and our marine biologist daughter was exploring a creek when she suddenly shouted out – ‘here is a board saying way to view point’.  The board was nearly hidden, but following the way it  pointed we started climbing up the hill through a thick forest. It was magical. There was birdsong all around, but the forest was so thick that I couldn’t identify the birds at all. There were some parakeets, and drongos and swifts were flying higher up. I recalled my conversation with our driver a little while ago. I had asked him about the chidiya of chidiya tapu, and he had smiled and informed me – no birds, only beach and sunset view. Clearly the birds didn’t figure on the average tourists agenda. Unfortunately we had to come back before reaching the ‘viewpoint’ because it was getting close to 5pm, when the guards had informed us that the beach would close.

Closely examining a nautilus washed up on the Chidiya Tapu beach

We felt that it would be a pity to leave Andamans without a true beach experience. To visit the famed beaches of the Andamans, we were told one needs to go to Havelock island which is a three hour ferry ride away. Not having enough time for tourism we decided to give it a miss this time. Instead we decided to go to the North Bay beach which was close-by a mere 45 minutes by boat. The trip included a possibility of seeing corals through the glass bottom boat or snorkelling. We immediately thought it would be similar to a day trip we had taken from Pattaya (in Thailand) to a coral island a couple of years ago. We were very disappointed at first. North Bay beach is not on an island, just further up north along the coast. It didn’t have a golden or

Watching across the waters near Chidiya Tapu

white sandy beach like we had imagined. Instead we got off from the boat onto a coral encrusted fringe of land which was fenced from the sea. We paid a 10 rupee ticket to get onto the tiny beach which was ringed with shops selling beachwear, food and shell based trinkets. There was no beach to loll on, and the overall atmosphere didn’t seem welcoming or relaxing at all. Diya had encouraged us to take the snorkelling trip – the price was a little steep we thought at 500 rupees per person. We were so glad that we did – it made our day. I had some initial difficulty breathing through my mouth with my head under water. But soon we were led a little further into the sea and we could see the corals underneath. Then we saw the multicoloured fishes – the smaller clown fish and the damsel fish, the much larger parrot fishes and the drab groupers. It was an out of the world experience, but soon it was over. Having spent time in the water, we felt that we would continue to swim and we did. Like with all tours soon our guide started calling us. We got out but before leaving we felt we must have some fried fish. Keeping our guide waiting we asked one of the shops to quickly fry us a medium sized ‘pomfret’. We enjoyed a delicious snack on our way back to Port Blair while getting thoroughly drenched as the rain blew in through the open window and we were strictly told not to move to the other side for fear of upsetting the ferry.

Landing at North Bay beach - no sand on this beach

An island sojourn is incomplete without seafood and there was no way we would let that happen here. Close to where we were staying was the New Lighthouse Restaurant, an open air restaurant and beer bar run by the city municipality. It was right next to the Rajiv Gandhi water sport complex and jetty. The surroundings are pretty, but the restaurant itself is very ordinary in its get up. We made friends with the Bengali wait staff and so the service we received was excellent. They had glass aquaria close to the open kitchen which had live crabs and prawns and lobsters of different sizes laid out on ice. Diya opted for a crab curry and Montuli wanted prawns cooked in coconut milk Kerala style. The food was delicious though the crab curry was a little spicy. We  had two more meals here before Diya said that we should explore more places. Using the very slow internet connection on our smartphone she found out about a restaurant called Mandalay and an auto driver agreed to take us there. Mandalay we discovered was the restaurant of the Fortune Bay Resort hotel, among the poshest hotels in town. The open air dining area  overlooked the sea  with the lighthouse on the seashore across the water. They say this is the view on the twenty rupee note – and it turned out to be true, but one never notices these things. We had prawns once again, this time cooked with crushed pepper, and tuna cooked in a spicy coconut milk sauce. The food was excellent while the prices were comparable to that at the New Lighthouse restaurant, while the ambience was infinitely better.

Cellular Jai

The town of Port Blair is small, but much larger than what we expected. It is like a hill town with an undulating terrain. Unlike most Indian towns the houses are not crowded together and it does not appear claustrophic. The town was very clean and the traffic seemed orderly with traffic policewomen at most crossings. The city has busses and auto rickshaws and there is was an unhurried air in the city. Coming from the unruly crowds and chaotic traffic of Delhi, it seem idyllic. Women were everywhere. Many shops in Aberdeen Bazar, the main market place, had women as shop attendants, some had women in charge. It was interesting to see that a large hardware and vehicle spare parts shop was also managed by women. Probably the city is less pretty when there are more tourists, and when it doesn’t rain so much. The rainfall was spectacular, and it rained every day we were there. However it was dry much of the time. But when it rained, it poured. Our room had a tin roof and had sound damping ceiling under it. When it rained, we could hardly hear each other speak. From the windows it seemed that a vertical wall of water was coming down. Half an hour or forty five minutes later it would be over. The roads were slick, but there was no water-logging the water had all flowed down the hill. Water is a part of life in Port Blair and the residents seem adjusted to it.

View from an upper corridor in the jail

No description of Port Blair is complete without a reference to the Cellular jail. In fact as children growing up in Kolkata, it was the first thing we learnt about the Andamans. The many stories of Bengali patriots who had been incarcerated there, had made the Cellular jail both a source of horror and awe. The jail comprising of over 800 individual cells or single rooms was originally in the form of a seven armed star radiating from a central watch pillar. It reminded me of the concept of ‘panopticon’ described by Jeremy Bentham – a prison where the inmates are constantly under watch. Today three of the arms remain while the rest have made way for the GB Pant Hospital campus. We saw the sound and light show in the evening and visited the jail premises now converted into a museum during the day. The story of the Andaman Cellular jail and the life of its inmates is a story of youth struggling against oppression, and of unbelievable cruelty of man on man. In some ways it reminded me of the inspiring Apartheid and Liliesleaf museums in Johanesburg

However this is not a well-known story even though it is not from so long ago – the jail was closed in the 30’s barely 70 years ago.  The Cellular Jail was commissioned in 1903 and the centenary celebrated in 2003 -04. It was the time of the BJP led NDA rule in India, and that perhaps explains why Vinayak Damodar Savarkar gets undue importance

Jail Museum

and mention in the museum. The jail museum also provides an insight into the armed struggle that was part of the independence movement.  Unfortunately this aspect of our freedom movement has been airbrushed by the moral high ground of the non-violent struggles championed by Mohandas Gandhi. While going through the story of the jail and its valiant inmates I was able to understand and sympathise with the use of religious and cultural identity by some of the inmates to mark their struggle against the colonial oppressors. There was concurrent story of solidarity between Indian patriots of different religions who came together for a number of strikes against the atrocities committed against them in this jail. Unfortunately today many of our politicians, following Savarkar’s lead still use religion to mark their political identity and a tradition used to mark struggle in Andaman today divides Indian citizens like nothing else.

Diya’s classes started on the 15^th of July, and so we were ready to return to mainland India and  to our work life. We are glad that Diya will spend the next two years in Port Blair, giving us reason to return and continue our interrupted love affair.