‘The movements in life are obvious. They are auspicious & full of spirit, if one has mould towards adventure.’ Since my childhood I had liking towards watching, doing, appreciating unknown things, works & objects. An additional liking towards arts has been inherited in me from paternal generations.
After joining Indian Navy in early age, did my basics, first appointment on board INS Khukri (sank in 1971 conflict) & due to better than colleagues qualities I was offered a change in profession. After due completion of the training in October 1972, the batch with individual performance (I was ranked 1st), we were left option for choice postings. I Opted for Port Blair. Others laughed & blessed me because none of others were willing to go there, but in any case one position was reserved for the place.
I was very happy & enthusiastic to reach to the place, so called ‘ KALA PANI’. December 08th I boarded & ship from Chennai, who dropped me to Port Blair after four days of bad weather sailing. I still have the frames in my memories of the first glance of the heavenly islands. I was welcomed by the already posted seniors of my profession, as they were anxiously waiting for a junior to look after the tougher jobs & who can call them ‘Sir’. The first sight of the township, colonization & inhabitants, natural beauty, language, culture not the lease but every blink left me amazed & astonished.
Within few days, I was accustomed of the geography & lifestyle of the place & started exploring the details about the land of historians. Due to my earlier interests & experience I was handed over with a camera (Yashica 635), to meet the photography requirements of the visiting dignitaries & official matters. This became an additional asset in my liking & fulfilling the thoughts. The equipment proved to be the real asset because time & again I was assigned to cover to the engagements of the Commanding Officer, which was not only in Port Blair but to distance islands, too. This equipment took me to more than 65 islands habitat & inhabitate inclusive of Long Island, Mayabandar, Diglipur, North Andaman, Barren Island, Carnicobar, Katchhal, Nancowry, Pigmallion Point, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Bananga, Tilanchang & lsit of small islands. It was an exciting moment to visit to Rangat & Havelock Islands. I could get opportunity for a close watch of the tribes of andamans Jarawas, onges, sentnelis & shompeions.
My parents relatives were left totally worried & tense that their son was sent to ‘Kala Pani’?
The then Port Blair, was, I’m sure, is beyond imaginations of the present time tourist/ visitors to the islands. We from our barracks used to graze the freely roaming spotted deers. The lovely islander speci of dogs was not the dangerous but had friendly tendency with human. Beyond dreams, I met a number of Kala Pani prisoners who were freed after independence but opted to settle in Port blair, while marrying other sex co-prisoner. As known the locality Shadipur is named after the mass marriage ceremony of such prisoners was solemnised at Shadipur while adequate place of residence was provided to them. I met an old prisoner lady, who never left any newly born infant of her family (killed more than 18 such infants) who was imprisoned in Cellular Jail. If I could judge her correctly she must be around 85-90 in 1974. She claimed that the makers of Free India used to be her colleagues in prison. Other prisoner Gurumoorthy was imprisoned because he killed 7 people who used to harass his family members. I happened to be weekend member of the family & friendly to his daughters Uppi & Ummi. There was a Nepali family of Krishna (teenager boy) whose father killed his parents, brothers & sisters for want of property & mother used to abort the neighbouhood pregnant ladies, as she wanted to be unique mother in the mohalla with children. Both were imprisoned to Kalapani, and later got married after independence.
I used to volunteer for expedition & hikings and got opportunity to reach uptop Mt. Harriet, Bamboo Flat where elephants used to work for log shifting from jungle to ferry & onward shipment. During those days there used to be only plywood industry, Andaman Timber Industries, where the ply was peeled out of Padack wood. The padauck, red in colour with veneers visible as good as sagaun & sheesham teak. But the colour of padauck still remains to be unique in the entire timber family. I was posted at out post of Roass Island (then under control of Indian Navy), which was a really picnic spot. The duty was to collect coconuts from more than one lac coconut trees. The natural plantation was such that it used to be difficult to find way between 20-30 coconut trees. The natural forest with spotted deers & pigs of naval piggery yard, number of local birds with distance vision of Port Blair main island was mind blowing. During evenings it used to be real time pass watching sharks playing fun on the aqua blue surface. We could feel the presence of some unknown wind ‘of a nurse’ (a nurse during reigns of Japan in the island). The big generator boiler, Japanese armoury, barracks, church, hospital (all ruined). But all used to adventurous under the amazing explorations.
During course of time I learned snorkeling with a friend of mine, and often used to go for snorkeling. The friend was a qualified sea diver and trained me to operate with scuba sets. The sea bed (people watch in Discovery chanel) view never allowed me to come up on the surface until I finished with my air. As there was no restriction during the days I collected a number of variety of sea shell & they remain to be in my collection as memories of Andamans.
It was thrilling to have close vision of Onges (the tribes), who never wanted to align with main stream civilization. There bow & arrows used to be the aim for the civilized & fishes for eating. Never heard or read in the books but these tribes used to hunt there livelihood fish through a bow & arrow. The nicobaris of Nicobar, though learned but local habitants of Nicobar, earned there livelihood from natural resources & government employment. The shipping used to be major employment platform & the defense units became source of learning civilized culture & behaviour.
After joining Indian Navy in early age, did my basics, first appointment on board INS Khukri (sank in 1971 conflict) & due to better than colleagues qualities I was offered a change in profession. After due completion of the training in October 1972, the batch with individual performance (I was ranked 1st), we were left option for choice postings. I Opted for Port Blair. Others laughed & blessed me because none of others were willing to go there, but in any case one position was reserved for the place.
I was very happy & enthusiastic to reach to the place, so called ‘ KALA PANI’. December 08th I boarded & ship from Chennai, who dropped me to Port Blair after four days of bad weather sailing. I still have the frames in my memories of the first glance of the heavenly islands. I was welcomed by the already posted seniors of my profession, as they were anxiously waiting for a junior to look after the tougher jobs & who can call them ‘Sir’. The first sight of the township, colonization & inhabitants, natural beauty, language, culture not the lease but every blink left me amazed & astonished.
Within few days, I was accustomed of the geography & lifestyle of the place & started exploring the details about the land of historians. Due to my earlier interests & experience I was handed over with a camera (Yashica 635), to meet the photography requirements of the visiting dignitaries & official matters. This became an additional asset in my liking & fulfilling the thoughts. The equipment proved to be the real asset because time & again I was assigned to cover to the engagements of the Commanding Officer, which was not only in Port Blair but to distance islands, too. This equipment took me to more than 65 islands habitat & inhabitate inclusive of Long Island, Mayabandar, Diglipur, North Andaman, Barren Island, Carnicobar, Katchhal, Nancowry, Pigmallion Point, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Bananga, Tilanchang & lsit of small islands. It was an exciting moment to visit to Rangat & Havelock Islands. I could get opportunity for a close watch of the tribes of andamans Jarawas, onges, sentnelis & shompeions.
My parents relatives were left totally worried & tense that their son was sent to ‘Kala Pani’?
The then Port Blair, was, I’m sure, is beyond imaginations of the present time tourist/ visitors to the islands. We from our barracks used to graze the freely roaming spotted deers. The lovely islander speci of dogs was not the dangerous but had friendly tendency with human. Beyond dreams, I met a number of Kala Pani prisoners who were freed after independence but opted to settle in Port blair, while marrying other sex co-prisoner. As known the locality Shadipur is named after the mass marriage ceremony of such prisoners was solemnised at Shadipur while adequate place of residence was provided to them. I met an old prisoner lady, who never left any newly born infant of her family (killed more than 18 such infants) who was imprisoned in Cellular Jail. If I could judge her correctly she must be around 85-90 in 1974. She claimed that the makers of Free India used to be her colleagues in prison. Other prisoner Gurumoorthy was imprisoned because he killed 7 people who used to harass his family members. I happened to be weekend member of the family & friendly to his daughters Uppi & Ummi. There was a Nepali family of Krishna (teenager boy) whose father killed his parents, brothers & sisters for want of property & mother used to abort the neighbouhood pregnant ladies, as she wanted to be unique mother in the mohalla with children. Both were imprisoned to Kalapani, and later got married after independence.
I used to volunteer for expedition & hikings and got opportunity to reach uptop Mt. Harriet, Bamboo Flat where elephants used to work for log shifting from jungle to ferry & onward shipment. During those days there used to be only plywood industry, Andaman Timber Industries, where the ply was peeled out of Padack wood. The padauck, red in colour with veneers visible as good as sagaun & sheesham teak. But the colour of padauck still remains to be unique in the entire timber family. I was posted at out post of Roass Island (then under control of Indian Navy), which was a really picnic spot. The duty was to collect coconuts from more than one lac coconut trees. The natural plantation was such that it used to be difficult to find way between 20-30 coconut trees. The natural forest with spotted deers & pigs of naval piggery yard, number of local birds with distance vision of Port Blair main island was mind blowing. During evenings it used to be real time pass watching sharks playing fun on the aqua blue surface. We could feel the presence of some unknown wind ‘of a nurse’ (a nurse during reigns of Japan in the island). The big generator boiler, Japanese armoury, barracks, church, hospital (all ruined). But all used to adventurous under the amazing explorations.
During course of time I learned snorkeling with a friend of mine, and often used to go for snorkeling. The friend was a qualified sea diver and trained me to operate with scuba sets. The sea bed (people watch in Discovery chanel) view never allowed me to come up on the surface until I finished with my air. As there was no restriction during the days I collected a number of variety of sea shell & they remain to be in my collection as memories of Andamans.
It was thrilling to have close vision of Onges (the tribes), who never wanted to align with main stream civilization. There bow & arrows used to be the aim for the civilized & fishes for eating. Never heard or read in the books but these tribes used to hunt there livelihood fish through a bow & arrow. The nicobaris of Nicobar, though learned but local habitants of Nicobar, earned there livelihood from natural resources & government employment. The shipping used to be major employment platform & the defense units became source of learning civilized culture & behaviour.
PUBLISHED: MALLCULTURE, Issue December08-January 2009
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