There is God and he heard my prayers, in the month of April, I visited to most beautiful place of India – Andaman and Nicobar Island. It was most exotic place.
I was sitting on the Beach of Niel Island in the Andaman’s, there were trees all around and I could hear thunder rolling in the distance. Everything else was silent, and there was no signal on my phone. I was exhausted from a day of tramping through an elephant island, boating through a reserve looking for crocodiles, snorkeling on the reef.
And next day I travelled through the Jarawa Reserve. I heard stories of how they sometimes attacked travelers with stones or arrows or even throw bones at them. I travelled through the reserve in a convoy of cars with police escort. However, I heard that what I am more likely to see, is the Jarawas coming out to get a peek at me – for them, we and our ways are as much a curiosity as theirs are to us.
After that I visited Havelock Island, the most popular Island of Andaman. I trekked, snorkeled and swam in the blue sea.
Now that I am been back, I’ve realized that what I miss the most is the silence. Here, even at night, when I lay on bed, I hear the occasional auto rushing by the shifting of chair in the flat below, dogs barking and a million other feeble sounds. But there in the Andaman’s even the meek volume of the music player of my phone, which is never audible here, seemed too loud.
Speaking louder than a whisper seemed irreverent. It was possible to isolate every sound and pinpoint where it came from. The rustling of leaves e, behind the bush, is probably a snake or crab. I could even hear the bird sitting in the third tree from the right. My senses felt sharper and keener.
So here are few photos for you of the places my feet have been in that fortnight.
By Gaurav Asthana
