Serendipity : Musings of an Islander

Few years back, it was one of our friends birthday and we had been invited to join him for a dinner. By evening everybody assembled at Susanto pan shop. As we were about to start, one of our friend announced a cocktail party,  preceding the dinner  had been arranged at Andabeda (little far away from the meeting place). All of us walked to the spot where M r Naidu  (Sada Siva) pulled a polythene bag from the bush. From the very appearance, one could judge it contained fried fish, but few of us was looking for something better. Just at the nick of time, Kam P rasad (Ram Prasad) appeared from nowhere with a bag. Center of attention immediately shifted to the clattering of bottles in the bag. That is it! exclaimed M urkesh (Tarkesh) and got the first bottle in his hand. Without waiting for the cheer, he gulped almost a quarter of it only to spew the liquid back at us! Ack thooooo! Interestingly during the time  M urkesh was gulping the “fool drink”  H ee...

Six years back, on 26 th day of Dec 2004, when the giant tsunami waves struck A&N Islands , there was absolute mayhem.  Everybody ran uphill to protect themselves, yet those nearest to the sea, stood firm and bore the burnt of natures fury silently, for they bear on their back the responsibility of protecting our coasts and they did it with firm determination. Who are they? They are the Mangroves; the silent sentinels of our coasts. Debkumar Bhadra | Musings of an Islander Mangroves are a group of salt tolerant tree species that grows in the saline marshy areas between the shore and the sea in tropical and sub tropical latitudes. They are found in the inter-tidal zones along the coasts, bays, estuaries, lagoons, creeks and backwaters which are exposed during low tide and flooded by sea during high tide everyday. Globally there are nearly 70 species of true mangroves found dominating three quarters of the tropical coastline.   Ind...

The news of CBSE question paper leak took the peace loving islanders by surprise. We have been hearing board exams are not being conducted fairly in remote islands especially in the Nicobar group wherein it is said even a lame duck could overcome the toughest hurdle easily. Students hailing from Andaman opting Car Nicobar as examination centre has been in vogue! The trend is more prevalent among compartment students. It is written on the wall, appear examinations from Nicobar centre and pass with flying colours! But the secret stands exposed courtesy a news item published in a local daily Aspect , much to the discomfort of those behind the conspiracy. Copying in exams used to be a regular feature, but the perpetrators upgraded to the next higher level – leaking question papers. Right from transportation of question paper bags from Port Blair to Car Nicobar, perpetrators had every bit of information. A trio, comprising a JE, a Ranger and Principal GSSS Lapathy, suppor...

Some of our islander friends are having a nightmare of their life after the cat namely Buffer Zone had been set out of the bag, which besides prohibiting free movement could append their landholdings for increasing the resource base of Jarawas! The issue could be traced back to Sept 2004, wherein the A&N Administration notified certain areas as tribal reserve under PAT regulation 1956. The highly cryptic notification proved bouncer for the Islanders with mediocre understanding of the language. Life went on as usual. After 3 years, in Oct 2007 the administration issued another notification declaring area upto 5 km radius around Jarawa tribal reserve from Constance Bay in South Andaman to Lewis inlet bay in Middle Andaman as Buffer Zone (BZ). This notification did create some unrest but soon life became normal once again. The real shocker came on Dec 8 th 2010, when few officials zeroed into individual shops (at M Andaman) and handed over a Govt order mentioning their...

Now a day, a group of men are seen engaged in a mission of digging roads and laying power cables in S outh A ndaman area. During the last few months this group had dug roads in Shore Point -  Bambooflat - Wimberly Gunj area. During their digging mission, I could see this group possess a unique work culture, which makes this league of diggers “extraordinary” among the contemporaries. The roads, wherever this particular group has laid cables has not only been reduced to half its capacity, the roads are left strewn with heaps of mud, dust and dirt rendering the road unfit for motorists, specially two wheelers and pedestrians as well. In one of the instance, this extraordinary workforce dug one side of the road at Shore Point village, laid cable, placed heaps of mud on the trenches without compacting it and disappeared overnight. In a bizarre turn of events the work force returned to dig the other side of the 3 m wide road which happens to be the only road leading to two pr...

My recent friend M r Y asir MB shared an article:   “ P unjab villages say no to booze, will move HC ” by N eel K amal & P arvesh S harma ( 9 F eb, 2011, TOI ), according to which hundreds of villages in P unjab's S angrur and P atiala districts are bracing for a legal battle with the state's excise department over proliferating booze trade. The panchayats in the area, where alcoholism touches nearly 60% of male population don't want liquor vends and plan to go to court to get rid of those booz vends. The unusual news prompted me to assess the scenario vis-à-vis liquor trade in our islands. Universally, alcoholism is considered the greatest threat to intellectual development and societal well being of a country. WHO estimates every year about 2.5 million people die from alcohol-related diseases the world over, accounting for 3.8 per cent of total deaths. Binge drinkers are prone to strokes, brain haemorrhage and a variety of psychiatric symptoms. Acoholism damages ...

Baratang is emerging as one of the most popular tourist spot in A&N islands. The journey through thick rainforest and thereafter to limestone caves in speed rafts amid mangroves is indeed a mesmerizing trip, but not easy because the intervening Middle strait creek is connected (or disconnected!) by ferry boats. Daily to and fro traffic across the creek include approx 2500+ commuters, 22+ bus, 100+ four wheelers and 50+ goods vehicles on board vehicle ferry boats. A major chunk of this traffic (1200 tourists and 60-70 four wheelers) crossing the creek altogether is un-necessary and rather risky since boats plying in the route is not certified to carry such huge number of commuters. The point to ponder, is it really necessary to ferry tourists to Nilambur jetty or they could be taken to limestone caves directly from Middle strait jetty? For a Baratang bound tourist, the ordeal starts slightly after midnight, because they need to board the vehicle scheduled to start at 0330 am in th...