Sprinkled Lands

My holiday trip to the cluster of islands across bay of bengal luckily happened during a pre Tsunami time.I now hear that those islands aren't the same anymore for a holiday trip.In that way it stays as a more treasured trip to me, for having explored the virgin beauty which now is tattered by mother nature herself.It still is one of my memorable trip.While i started out to set foot on those islands i was told that our ancient epic Ramayana had a minor reference with the tiny islands.While hanuman was on his journey probing lanka to spot sita, first he set foot on those islands down south to land in lanka.And hence the group of islands were named handuman earlier which later became andaman islands.

Well just not this,these islands really had many things that came as an amusing package for some one from a concrete jungle, like me.Nature at it's best was finely captured there.Unusual to me,I found a variety of beaches there.One with no waves and clear water where one can almost walk in to the water & perhaps reach the other island thatz visible.Another one with little waves & a long coast good enough to have an ideally long stroll.While another one with almost with no coast but amazingly rich in under water coral collections. This beach was the highlight of my trip.This rich collection of underwater colour corals were found in an island called Northern Bay hardly 1 hr drive from Portblair on the main island.I simply have no words to describe the joy that flowed in my heart while snorkeling at northern bay watching the under water secrets with god given eyes.Thanks to the fisherman who swam for this hydrophobic damsel in a rubber tube alongside.This under water expedition is a must in your 'to do' list.
The nearest island was the Ross Island.To get u exactly where i have been,this is the island where the scintiallting song 'Uyirin Uyrea' in Gautam Menon's movie starring surya as a super rich looking Cop was shot.Definitely a fantastic place.Yes it kept remainding me of surya time and again until i left those waters.I have some thing more to tell u abt this island.This island was found sinking everyday i was told.Post Tsunami this island would have suffered the maximum blow,I guess.I found deers here amidst serene green lush.This was the most visited island by the british during our pre independence time.U will know y when u come here. The fishes in these waters kept twisting & tossing in air and were mostly found in groups.It was a great treat watching the water world species in joy.
The farthest island that we explored on our trip was the Viper Islands. Had you been there with me, i bet you wouldn't have stopped clicking ur camera for every few seconds.Yes, the water ways amidst the rich blend of nature was a picture postcard from every single setting.Amazing treat to the eyes.Choose to travel in an open ferry to enjoy your ride to the max.As we kept visiting few of the pristine places there, almost untouched by human and divinely belonging to nature,at some point of time i realised the true existence of god and his wonderful creation.For somebody like me from a dense concrete jungle,watching the virgin islands across the bay of bengal was undoubtedly an immense pleasure.
I was just amazed gazing at the infinite coconut trees standing tall every where.If one were to count 1000 trees a day,i bet there would still be none to cease the count.The cellular jail in portblair was just an epitome of our freedom struggle.For those who remained low spirited like me reading all about freedom & struggle only via the black&white pages of history book years back,this will make u feel what was all abt it.The real struggle,torture & reality behind those fuming souls come alive through the Light & Sound show which makes us travel back in time and makes us live for an hour, in the scenes of the agonizing lives destined for those in the prison.A must watch show.
The other places of importance in these islands were the Anthropological Museum,Aquariums,Science city,Sun Set Point,Botanical gardens,water parks,coral collection museums,harbour cruise & chatham saw mill(Asia's largest saw mill) .Every park in the island has a huge lake where u can unwind urself and be with the nature.Don't forget to visit corbin's cove,the one in main island.Those who are greedy on sea food like me, this is again the place for you.Those yummy and deliciously prepared prawns and fishes are still in my sight.Mouth watering crabs & squids were simply out of earth delicacies there. Though there were many more islands to be explored,with just a week's time in hand, I was content visiting four short distant islands from my port of landing.If you know swimming,probably you should try scuba diving on an appropriate island.

The tourism department of Andaman & Nicobar has rejuvinated the tiny islands back for safe and happy visits,i read recently.If you seriously feel that you need a short refreshing break in life,then this is one of the right place for you to soak ur legs in some dirt and water.Take some time off ur busy hectic schedule to visit this wonderland which is quite near,hardly 2 hrs from chennai by flight and unwind yourself for a week for a complete recharge. I found myself clicking the timeless beauty of nature all the time but only to tell you even million picture post cards cannot justify the pristine beauty of those lands.You got to see for yourself to believe that you are really in a magical destination.

No worries do i have ... Kris

I felt the shock waves piercing me when I found the death news of a great legendary singer M.S.Subulakshmi on the front page of daily.I was really taken aback for few minutes since I believed that I had few things to connect to her right from day one of my schooling.My parents were told that the school campus was M.S.Subulakshmi’s residence previously and that she sold it to my school trustees.I grew there from a toddler at 3 to a teenager until 17. We always felt her presence, being there, leaving many things untouched the way she handed it over to my school authorities like the garden that she nurtured, the Krishna statue that she stocked upright on the front landscape with a flute in his hand, the memorable edifice where Gandhi, Nehru and other freedom fighters rested during their visit to Chennai.I still remember that building in the middle of the campus encircled by silence with some divine vibrations anytime i happen to step in.It still contains some striking pictures of her, bound by huge wooden frames hanging on those big walls. The place was called ‘Kalki Garden’ by her and we addressed it the same way to carry forward the remembrance and her memories. My heart wept inside watching her corpse placed in a coffin in the daily paper that Monday morning. Though not a hard core carnatic music buff I somehow got myself glued to this one song sung by her-Kurai onrum illai marai murthy kanna.

Hey Kris,we really have no worries except to believe that she is no more.

59/3 CPWD Qtrs

Soon after my schooling we moved to a happening place in the city of Chennai- AnnaNagar. Quite an astounding place with posh houses, wide roads & pleasing greeneries. People living there for decades seem refined in all aspects of life. Life was a real bliss living there. The locality even today is a sharp but a silent bustling area for the cream crowd who have enough zest to explore the best & the latest in the city whether it be fashion, food, clothing ,gadgets, cosmetics & what not.
The very name of the locality will sound soothing to the soul if u have lived there. Though until now we never own a concrete piece there,a span of six serene years were gifted by god to enjoy life in such posh place in a city like Chennai. It added more color to my college life from day1. The central government of India had scooped this huge square land and christened it as cpwd quarters for its employees right in the middle of that hundred feet road. It mildly resembled a forest settlement with a planned green belt inside the campus. It was a paradise amidst the usual city's concrete jungle and I bet there is none to deny this.
I had no idea initially when i was told that we will soon be shifting to this strange place(cpwd qrts) in the same city of mine.But i realised the importance and charisma of this place once i landed in.Even today many of my friends have tender feelings associated with this place where i lived.Dense tall green ashoka trees on either side of the pathway at the entrance just gave a striking realisation of having entered an earthly heaven.For all those who have been there i am sure they would know, this is a no exaggeration. The ambiance was impeccable any day anytime sinking a warmth feeling of being in a earthly heaven .
I lived there for little more than half a decade . I remember very precisely how childish i was and how that place had seen me grow in to a matured,sensible and a self confident young damsel. We lived in the first floor of a well - ventilated block containing four stacked floors with each deck containing 2 houses. My house had it's own charm and we were the first one to occupy the newly built block. Soon people moved in to all the allotments and life became more vivid with compatible & amicable neighbors who made our lives truly colorful. We were more than a close knit family sharing food, music, culture, thoughts, joy, sorrow and sometimes even our ideas & practices. We knew more number of families than before.
Though it wasn't a huge or a amply spacious house, it was adequate enough for a four dwindled to three family, to live in. The walls of that house had witnessed me during my times of distress, anxiety& my moments of joy. If u were to ask every brick in that house,they would tell u what a cry babe,lazy bum & a dream girl I was in the initial years but managed to come to the reality world at the end. My favorite place was the window corner in my room. It was just not another window to me but was a window which showed me the outside world letting me dare my dreams. Every time i saw outside the window, i had an inspiring breath dashing in some fresh air while watching the green lush, the tall conical water tank strikingly visible from my window, teens playing with full of life, kids learning to peddle, the obese jogging to cut down & many more which were a typical vision of a peaceful settlement.
Every house had at least one portico which added life to the enclosed house. A tall green tree spread across almost the entire block of mine on either side added beauty to the occupied area. It was best enjoyed being in the portico.There were variety of houses, allotments strictly based on official rankings. Though my house is the best to me , i also loved and admired the one occupying the center of the colony. It was special in the way it's been constructed and the location for it being chosen. It had a single room on top of the spaciously built house fenced with it's own green area , portraying the one described in Enid Blyton stories. Every time i take a stroll around the colony it had always been my envy... and i wouldn't forget to give it a longing look. But people rarely lived there for long as it was a special cottage for the top most officials who were mostly on wheels shuttling between major metros.
It had a school, a kendriya bandar, playgrounds, badminton courts, care taking offices, postal facilities, open arena & temples facilitating the residents. It was the place from where i pursued my dream degree. It was a place where i managed to gain few friends of my own age sharing the same kind of dream in life with similar family back grounds. One cannot miss the teens flocking together all the time. They were the ones who rocked anytime. A perfect place to meet a lot of friends ,share some intimate thoughts, & play until the day ends.
As residents we enjoyed living there best during the rainy season when we imbibed a perfect feeling of living with the nature. It truly used to be a breath taking sight while it rains watching the fall colors, blooming flowers & the bright green grass . It still is a perfect ecosystem supporting hundreds of birds and other organisms providing them shelters on tree tops. Not all the time we enjoy the nature around us. But i promptly find some time during the winter months to admire the leaves wilting on the tree facing our block, standing in my portico realizing how times change even for the trees and not to mention, they again start sprouting back in summer months. Wonderful sight i tell you.
I enjoyed a very peaceful life & enhance myself personally .It helped me work upon my thoughts to achieve more than i thought i could, sitting under this roof than anywhere else, trying to understand my own self & figure out what this world was up to. That place had helped me evolve in to a mentally strong person just for the kind of life i have had here and kept me in close proximity to an eventful place in the city in catching up with the latest .
And finally when it was time for me to quit this place,years rolled by and i realized that I will never live in this place again in this life of mine. I am reminded of something when i type out these lines. When we moved away from a house where we lived for 15 yrs since i was a year old kid i spent hours crying aloud , unable to digest the fact that i was leaving that place forever. Probably people at home would have felt a bit amusing but i had to pour out just to get away with that hard feeling of departing from such a memorable place where i have had wonderful childhood memories. But now that i have grown with the years and those years grew with me,I simple bid a sad goodbye to the place where I spent the most important years in my life.
I knew nothing lasts forever. I also knew that no one can stay there permanently which is when i realized that place has a magical spell pulling people together for a short span & bid us good bye some day which is the same theory lying behind our very own lives .It was truly a deserving experience living @ CPWD AnnaNagar. I really miss that place even today.

Why ?

Life always isn't the way we perceive it.Every crest has a trough & every trough looks forward to a crest.There are constant times when we are either on falling or on rising curves of this sinusoidal wave of life .And it happens in every man's life.None of us are an exception to this rule.I know when in distress we must take it as a grace from the lord.But does the mind understand inspite of the repeated positive churning in ?.What lies beneath the fragile human life & happiness is definitely an astounding mystery.We all live under this hazy theory which still demands a striking elucidation.Looks like this still remains as one unprobed area where man is unable to comprehend things beyond his reach & realisation though he has reasons of why and what,sometimes.Probably being a true non-atheist I would say this is where god draws a line of demarcation between him and his creations.If man was able to comprehend all that happens in his life then y do we have a god?

Moments

Just few minutes back i witnessed a sensational vision outside my window.I want to share it with some loved one.Since am home alone, am sharing it with u machy(my machintosh laptop).I waited till it dissappeared without a trace.It was cloudy outside and the milky clouds were trying to take some better shape on the sky outside but i didn't realise things until they all clubbed together to form two huge ball of mountains covering almost the entire sky visible to me with a spectacular lively effect making me feel as if i live in a valley between those two virtual headlands.Just looking a little down where I could find green lush all around, for a second instantaneously i gripped a feeling that i live @ some valley in the heaven.i really felt the presence of god during that impressive moment bound by nothing but silence and ecstasy.It was one of the beautifully cherished moments in my life.There was an infinite joy instigated inside me for which i don't have enough words .I truely lived that joyous moment in solitude.I feel great telling this to u my machy, this beautiful sight of nature which i witnessed moments back.
I am sure that the magnificient moment that i observed minutes back would have vanished without a trace outside my window now but will be etched forever in ur harddrive.

Isn't life a dream ?

Life appears like a realistic dream in it's own profound sense, to me.Have you also felt this before ?Or discovered that nothing lingers for more than a second, in reality. It is we who try to hold back things in our mind and dwell with the past ,in the present,fooling us but time keeps outbalancing itself every second trying to give us the best of all times, it can. Is it not we who neglect the most precious time,which comes time and again ?.Is not each moment an opportunity offered & a gift unwrapped before us ?.But why do we either tend to look back or look beyond and not right ahead ? Have you experienced this fabulous living dream any time ?