World Champions

For 28 years since the last world cup title, we have had faith, lost faith, have had wonderful victories, unbelievable defeats, came so close to the cup, and still remained far behind. There were multiple scandals, format changes.. and an influx of too much money.


But we never lost our passion for the game, and today we get our reward.


To the game that unites the most diverse country in the world, across all walks of life; to the team that won the cup for us; and to Sachin for being the best role model the country could ever ask for, for 20+ years - THANK YOU!!!


Congratulations, India.

Beneath The Surface...A Termite Nest

Reading a very well written article on the state of our country, makes me wonder...

How far are we from the abyss of this?

Travelogue: Andaman & Nicobar Islands

I usually stick to posting short stories on this blog. But I heard a story on the radio today about the threat to corals, and I was reminded of my trip to the islands. My trip was more than ten years ago, and I do not have my photos handy for reference, so forgive the hazy details on this trip to memory lane.

It was before 9/11, and the cockpit doors were not kept resolutely shut on the flight. My dad had heard somewhere that kids would be allowed to enter the cockpit and talk to the pilots if they ventured that far, so my brother and I were forced to try our luck. The view from the cockpit was everything you would imagine, with clouds dotting the sky, and the outline of islands appearing on the horizon. One of the pilots pointed to the Sentinel islands, the first group of islands that appear in the sea on the way to the Andamans, and said he would drop us off there. When I didn't understand the significance, he explained that the Sentinelese did not have any contact with the outside world and that they were a cannibalistic tribe. I suppose the shock on our faces was worth it.

The pilots offered us tips: to use plenty of mosquito repellent, and to check out the Sound & Light Show at Cellular Jail in Port Blair. The air strip used for landing in Port Blair is extremely short, so only skilled Air India pilots are allowed to land here. I heard that there was a new strip being built so this may have changed now. We were staying a week, and I am fairly certain there was some trouble with our tickets, as can be expected with Air India, but we didn't let that spoil our visit. I think the first thing I noticed was that the blur of activity was like in any other part of the country. The people looked the same as well, explained away by the fact that us 'mainlanders' had overrun the place and pushed the natives out. One of the museums we visited had the history of the Jarawa tribes amongst others, which according to Survivor International, is in danger of being wiped out after increasing contact with the outside world. These tribes are considered to have been among the successful migrants out of Africa and it would indeed be a shame if a curious and avaricious outside world destroys the tribal ecosystem.

If you ever visit Port Blair, make sure to find the schedule for the Sound & Light Show, and visit it. The Cellular Jail is an imposing structure, with seven wings and three floors of cells. Three of the wings survive to this day, and the show highlights the tortures these walls have seen. We understand our freedom was largely a non violent movement, but that there was always inhuman treatment meted out by the other side. Just how inhuman the conditions and punishments were and how much suffering our independence seekers endured, you will find out during the show. The prisoners from the 1857 struggle were sent here, and Vir Savarkar was one of the more famous prisoners. While walking/traveling around the cliffs of the island, you will see round hole outlets. These were tunnels that sent bodies directly to the sea after they had been hung.

I always pictured these cells while reading JKR-Harry Potter's Azkaban references, more real to me than the presumed inspiration, Alcatraz.

The differences with the 'mainland' start with dawn. The sun rises at 4.30 AM and it is completely dark by 5.30 PM. We took quite a few day trips to various gorgeous islands nearby, and there was plenty of swimming.

The Ross Island is a big draw, for the dilapidated ruins that conjure up images of British colonial life, from their capital in the islands. If I remember right, outside of the church we got to see deer that were quite friendly and posed for pictures. Today, the island is uninhabited, save for the daily visits of curious tourists. And yet, you see water bottles and other plastic paraphernalia strewn about where the land and the sea meet. There are bunkers reminiscent of the march of the Japanese during the Second World War, when they had reached as far as the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and built bunkers as they watched for enemies. The Allies did retake the island, but didn't stay.

I remember going to Viper Island, Jolly Buoy and Barren Islands. The last one, you cannot get on, but only go around. Its amazing to swim on the picturesque beaches, especially with all manner of fish unhurriedly going past you. My dad actually saw a gorgeous fish, a kind we had never seen before, and while one of the uncles took a video, he tried catching it with a towel, but failed. Just as well. When we returned to Port Blair that day, we went to an aquarium where we found out the yellow-with-brown-stripes multiple-finned fish was called Lion-fish, and that it was poisonous and could lead to fatal injuries. I think Jolly Buoy's the one around which you can take glass-floor boats that show you the coral reef in all its glory. I am not sure why the island got its name, but it may have something to do with the tide's effect on the coastline - think of the beach in Dead Man's Chest from the Pirates trilogy.

Havelock island has some of the best beaches in Asia, as per Time. We went snorkeling on the beach, and looked at corals up-close. The boats leave you in the morning and come back to fetch you later in the day. The beaches on Havelock are the best for swimming, and I remember trying but giving up snorkeling here. I tried standing on the sea floor, and felt a nip on my leg, assuming it was a clam I ignored it and went back to the beach. After a good many hours spent at the island, while on our way back to Port Blair, a Bengali family that had spent the day on a rock overlooking the beach informed us that they saw a croc sunbathing in the distance. I was completely flabbergasted at the nonchalant way in which they informed us after the fact. Now, having grown up listening to tales of careless arms, children and grown men being eaten by ever-watchful crocodiles, especially in rivers, I am still amazed at their uncaring comment.

Or maybe I am just scared of crocodiles.

The coral reef system extends from the Andaman & Nicobar islands, all the way to Australia, and is in danger of being wiped out. By raising temperatures, unsustainable harvesting and improper care. Unless a 'herculean' effort is made, nearly all the coral reefs will be in danger in just a few decades (from today's radio program). Man is the only being to change his environment to suit him, we can only hope that the rest of the planet survive the changes, or ultimately we won't, either. But the first step should probably be everyone acknowledging that we have a grave problem on our hands, and obtaining consensus on just that is in itself a monumental challenge, given current attitudes in some parts of the world.

Dangers to the corals aside, a trip to the islands is well worth the visit, and the tan!

Journal

This trip had been in the planning stage for oh-so-long. And finally we were on our way. Diminished in number, and in stature. The AC Tempo traveller became a non AC one due to sudden unavailability of the one we had booked. There were supposed to be twelve of us, and that became nine. But dodo sure wasnt complaining, esp since she bagged the last seat and was probably the only one who slept comfortably.

As we settled into our rooms, srinath entered ours and sneezed. A huge ball of mucus fell down on the bed. Wait a minute, it was lavender in color. Sure wasnt mucus. But definitely icky. Su, the proud owner of the slime, hung on to it the rest of the trip. Throwing it at people. But of course, the cover of the slime-thingy said 'Suitable for: Five Years and above.' He qualified.

After lunch, our guide/ owner of the guest house was briefing us about the rafting. Do not wear rings. Wear sports shoes. Pratima kept insisting that the windows of the guest house should be kept locked at night, to avoid snakes. So someone asked the guide if there were any snakes. 'Sure' he pointed in the direction of the fields behind the guest house, 'you will find plenty of King Cobras there.' We were truly in the midst of the jungle. No network (mobile). No landline connection.

'Elephants?'

'Once in a while.' He came back to the rafting trip. I ventured, 'Crocodiles?' in jest.

'A few.'

Shocked stares. 'You mean they allow us to raft in crocodile infected waters?'

'No m'am, they aren't found in the place where the rafting takes place.'

Big consolation.

We left for the Jungle Lodges, from where a jeep would take the nine of us to the rafting starting point. It was an open air jeep. An unexpected bonus. We stood most of the one hour ride, quite forgetting the crocodiles part. Finally, we reached the starting point.

John, with a British accent, took over, made us form groups, told us that we were to travel in 6 rafts. There were 40 of us, all set to do our bit of adventure sports. Jo( separated from Su), Shashi, Nitesh, Raful and me were in one raft, headed by John and another chap, white male caucasian, was with us. His name was Manu. We will come back to him in a mo. Dodo, Su, Parts and Srinath were in Bobo's raft, along with a couple. Bobo was from Sweden. And was just three days old in River Kali.

Life jacket, helmet and the oar adorned, we set off. Not so fast. The safety instructions. Forward paddle, Backward paddle, Hold on, Get down and Hold on, Over right, Over left. As if that weren't enough, we were told how to swim if we were approaching a rock, how to pull someone from the water onto the raft, what to do if a raft overturns, et al. I was having visions of the raft overturning and me forgetting all the instructions. Jo apparently, was thinking the same thing of herself.

Then came the customary dips in the water. It was really cold, and the river bed was not within reach of our legs. John took Manu's glares before his dip, and commented on how expensive looking they were. Not a moment too soon, for one eye piece popped out in his hand as he said it. Manu had bought it at a two dollar store. No wonder!

Su was more worried about his pants slipping off, than anything else while taking his dip. Thank god the procedure to pull someone back into the boat was to pull the lifejacket, not the hands, else he would have been hanging on to his pants, instead of the savior's hands.

John went around telling each raft their position, and we were the last, and Bobo's just before us. The first rapid was upon us before we knew it. John told us it was the biggest rapid in the entire rafting section. We were feeling quite brave after that, till he added that there were difficult ones up ahead.

Forward paddle, backward paddle.. Get down and hold on! was all we heard. In the lull of conversation, Jo and I tried making conversation with Manu. He was sooooooooo cute!!! When he got a leaf stuck near his eye, both of us pointed it out to him. Like he couldnt see it! ;)

Bobo, as I mentioned, was very new, and almost lost his way a couple of times, besides getting stuck on a rock, and teaching his rafters a Swedish war chant. He asked the Dodo, Parts, Srinath and Su if they were couples. They shook their heads in denial, and quite forgot what they were. Finally one of them said ' Just Friends', to Bobo's disbelieving grin.

I asked Manu, 'how did you get that name?' you know, him being a caucasian and all. 'Long story' he said, too bad we didnt get to hear it :(

John is married to an Indian, and stays in Bangalore, and holds a PIO card. The only difference between him and us, he said, was the skin colour, and swimming abilities - his being better, of course !

Too soon, the rafting trip was done. One and a half hours went by in a flash. And we were soaking wet. Parts whispered to Jo about Su's pants getting loose in the water. And made a claim to the colour of his chaddis.. Su was within hearing distance, and proudly pulled down his pants to give them both a closer look. Not all the way down, thankfully. Black Jockey, if you were wondering (not that I looked)!

John and Manu hitched a ride in our jeep. No complaints from me n jo. :) All of us talked about Bangalore's traffic, and Manu was complaining about how he takes one minute to get to work, in Dandeli! grrrrrrrr.

On our way back to the guesthouse, Jo's singaporean hat was used as a lampshade, pirate cap, and also as a face-cover for those who wanted to sleep. We had a campfire outside the guesthouse, and each one was made to dance, except for Raful. Su started off with a Nagin dance, Dodo did a lovely imitation of 'Kya bolti tu' and Pratima rocked with her hop-skip and jump to the tune of 'Mummy...' around Su !

We were all determined to stay awake, so a few ghost stories/ encounters made the rounds. Which left Jo quite scared of walking back to the guest house alone ;)

There were two bedrooms and a huge hall in the guest house. Jo n Prat persuaded the guys to sleep in the hall( on the mattresses, silly!) and they went to the room, quite pleased with themselves on having bagged it. Till they saw the undies displayed on the window railings. In all shapes, sizes and colours. They tried speculating on the owner's, apparently. We shall let it rest right there!

Srinath woke up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep coz of the pain in his rowing arm. He went to Jo's room to ask for a tablet, and was quite scandalised on seeing them both sleeping, ah well, quite next to each other; and almost retreated from the room. Then he realised that both Jo n Prat had been given just one pillow between them, and went back to the room to get a painkiller from Jo.

After many flip flops on the plan for Sunday, it was finally decided that we go to Yana, along with stopovers at a waterfall and a religious place. The waterfall was quite a disappointment, as we couldnt get into the water and we could only take pics of it from a cliff. The religious place we went to was much the same, with shivalingas that apparently are formed all by themselves, which looked quite improbable. Su went to a guru and performed a pooja, probably keeping his progeny in mind, and came back with the story that a king was asked to build all these shivalingas so he could have a kid.

We set off for Yana, thinking that the most fun apart from the rafting trip had actually been the travelling, in part due to the scorching sun. Lunch and icecreams at Sirasi, with Su purpotedly trying to kill Jo by giving her one that was well past its expiry date - the icecream, i mean. But we know otherwise! :-P

We had to trek 3 kms to reach Yana, all of it through the jungle, with Srinath and Shashi prodding us on, sometimes with sticks, saying that we had to walk faster as we had to leave the place before sunset. With Su and Rahul making mating calls (probably to each other) hoping for a peek at wildlife, and a gal(who shall not be named here) wanting to take a leak, we somehow made the three kms, and then from just behind a rock, when we were quite tired of all the walking, pops out the mountain. Yana. So beautiful, definitely worth the while. (if thats an expression)



There was a temple set in the mountain, and the poojary told us that many people had tried researching about the mountain, as to how it came about (looking as it does) and no one had a satisfactory answer. According to lore, Shiva kills the demon brothers( i forget their names) and Shiva and Parvati and their followers, took up the mountain forms. There are 63 such rock/ mountain formations in Yana. During the british rule, many uttar kannada followers would make a journey to the temple. When asked by the britishers, they would say 'naavu yaana ge hogthaidhiri'(obviously not d exact words - meaning 'we are on a yatra') and the britishers thought that yaana was the name of the place and named it on the map as such. Thats how the name came to be.

The poojary also showed us the outline of a watery shivalinga that is formed by a steady flow of water, you can actually make out the snake, the moon and the ganges, all in that watery outline. The water flow is constant, that is it never increases at the time of flood or decreases during drought. :) There is a pathway around these rocks which actually is a pradakshina around the temple, which took us through a series of cave like rock formations.

The only problem about the place was its, well, basic amenities with regards to the loos. It was uh well, quite inaccessible by foot, even with raful trying to clear a path, and looked quite disused sitting about ten feet higher than ground level. We shall not reveal how the problem was solved :-P

Then started the trudge back to the tempo traveller. And the exhausting journey back. Dinner at shimoga. Oh I left out the wonderful music collection we had. Himesh reshammaiya and no one else the whole of the first day. CD courtesy: Su. rather, su's bro. Jaggu uncle (driver) had a vcd, of shaadi se pehle. We watched probably 40 mins of it. Not worth a watch. As for the music, we would like never to hear himesh reshammaiya again ;) Thankfully, there were a few songs of Rang De Basanti too. Raful had a collection of old hindi songs and their originals in english! Quite disappointing to know that most of the songs we love, are all lifted tunes. :(

We reached Bangalore! at around 4.30 in the morning, and delivered right outside our homes. Lovely trip, and i hope prat will upload all the snaps before the year ends!