am in Andaman !!!

            Sometimes the resistance from within to leave a place for another, can be so high that we tend to speak and think of only the negative things that might end up happening. Now I get the word, it is "inertia". I was in that state before leaving for Andaman and Nicobar for navy attachment (part of my training). Not that I don't like travelling it was just that the pull factors were more intense than push ones.

First three days are gone in "trying" to learn something and "trying" to find places and moments of joy just to keep myself going. High moments of the day used to be less than normal - which included some learning regarding Indian Navy, playing in the beach, a food for thought from a book etc. Just when my boredom was about to overtake me completely, my patience started to pay back. Everything has its own time and place. How could I even think of living those moments whose time hasn't come. On the last day of my visit, in retrospect I could definitely say I had my share of take aways from the Island.

First  such moment was on Havelock Island. There, Radhanagar Beach was one of the most beautiful and finest beaches I have ever been to. The sand is so smooth that one can run on it only to feel the cushion underneath one's feet. The water was so clear with a marvelous mix of shades of green with thin white foam. The waves though huge are soothing and melodious. There was no sign of a single stone or a rock on the site. At 12 in the noon there were hardly anyone else playing in the beach, but there were a couple of foreigners, sitting in the shade and enjoying the view.

My second high of the trip turned out to be the biggest learning I had through out it. This was when we visited an island called 'Baara Tanga' on the way to which one can get a chance to see a few Jarawas. Though it was not in our tour plan, I insisted that we should visit the place, to find first hand answers to many questions which have been lingering in my mind for so long. Since, my days in Kalahandi, where I worked closely with a few tribes, such questions frequented my mind, like - what is the ideal way to deal with the tribals and their development?, What is tribal "development" in the first place?, Is it "good" for tribals to be integrated into so called "main stream"? Who should be "responsible" and "accountable" for act effecting tribals in any way? .. so on.. and so forth...  This particular tussle in my mind deserves a new post (sooner, asap may be)

Till then, I can share my little experience during my passage through Jarawas Reserve Territory (JRT). We started off from Port Blair at 4:30 am in the morning in order to reach Jirkatang, a panchayat in southern Andaman. This itself was pricking my heart every now and then during the journey, as we "planned" for it.. planned to see co-humans living in their natural habitat, leading their lives as normally (more naturally than any of us from so called civilized society) as any of us. Is it that they live in a world different from mine or that they live differently in the same world I live in - cant say for sure what made me go there. From Jirkatang, a convoy with police in the front started as per scheduled time. Before setting off for this journey I did not expect anything nor imagine anything as to how the experience is going to be. But as the convoy started my imagination started going wild. This was mostly because we were told that Jarawas would be seen on both sides of the road we ride on, who come out of their houses. The convoy started and like a child moving his head along a with the motion of a moving pendulum, to and fro, I started moving my head left and right, left and right trying to "spot" Jarawas. 

I am not very proud of using the word "spot", but yes that was precisely what was happening there. Soon our driver said "there, on ur left, behind, one is sitting"..., I quickly turned but missed him. As we moved on, since the driver was not allowed to slow down his vehicle, he used to quickly tell us "there, there a bunch of them sitting" and when I turned slowly to my left.. there, they sat a family. A man, a woman and a child, the couple sitting with their backs leaned onto a slab and the child in between them. In that quick pass, I could see them for only a few seconds. In those few seconds, my eyes picked up three things - a greyish ash like colour smudged on pure black (their skin tone), a small piece of red cloth covering the essential body parts and the look in their eyes. 

The look in their eyes and the posture in which they sat, hinted a kind of "indifference and duty". I didn't understand why would any one sit like that as if in leisure on the side of a road with fast moving cars, with thick jungle on both the sides. My guilt has gone deeper and my curiosity higher by then. My curiosity was not to "spot" more but to know why why why, why would they come and sit there like that. As the car moved on, I kept my head still on left side alone and soon, a little inside behind a tree, there sat another group of men. This time, they were a little far off, but something unique I saw. A man in regular clothing and a different complexion, a non jarawa, was standing next to the jarawas group. Oh oh oh !!! There the chain of questions went on and on in my mind.. and instigated many thoughts in me. I do not know much neither about the jarawas nor the issues concerning them. Hope to update myself by my next post on the topic. 

The third moment was yet an other world, like my second one. Truly natural world, the marine life in the sea, when I got an opportunity to do open sea diving, close to North Bay Island. The experience was too good to be true. It was like finding oneself in the middle of colourful marine life in the movie Finding Nemo. Just that this time it was too good to be true. The site of beautiful small fishes, schools of large fish, live corals gives one not only an eye treat but also shows in a small way that we know nothing or very little about "other worlds". I feel incapable to put in words that amazing beauty which gave me immense inexplicable joy. One should experience it for oneself... 

So, it wasn't as bad after all? May be. It did leave me with questions, thoughts, feelings, ideas and what not... !