Tamil New Year in the Andamans

On my birthday this year I gave a colloquium at IISER, Kolkata. Thanks to all of you who sent sms, e-mails and made calls. I realized I forgot to collect my TA from INSA the previous day.
This place (Mohanpur) is located in serene surroundings and I could locate no high rise buildings. Full of mango trees studded with tender mangoes. They lie scattered all over the place. Pity there is nobody to collect them! I had a long walk with Panigrahi, who has an independent house around which he grows vegetables. The cook in the GH had left for shopping on 27th morning and I had to make breakfast (toast and tea) myself. Food was inadequate the previous night too. When we sat to eat, there were only three chapatis left for the four of us (the limited quantity of food was consumed by others who ate before us). After my seminar, the previously announced tea never came! We ended up taking tea in small plastic cups in a way side hut. There was a special lunch. In the evening I had to be happy with leftovers of the same lunch, as the cook decided there is no need to cook, though Panigrahi had brought some homegrown veggies! This kanjoosi reminded me of an old story which was narrated to me by Soma. Apparently Soma’s family of four was invited by B (another family of four). The latter had cooked exactly eight pieces of whatever dish they had planned. While the elders were talking, the kids went in and ate more than their share, so the others were left without food!
Then I went to Tirupati via Hyderabad to attend the Golden Jubilee Seminar of a university department, composed of mostly Reddys. I barely managed to escape from being addressed Ramesh Reddy! Prasanna told me once that an eddy in the Red Sea is also called a reddy, as the one in the Mediterranean is called meddy. Two funny incidents: (i) On the inaugural day, some principal Reddy presided; he introduced all the Reddys on the dais, and referring to one of them he declared that someone important had been invited, and as he could not make it, they have brought a substitute! (ii) On the second day a 78 year old former teacher was felicitated. In his acceptance speech he confessed that he did not ‘open any book of Geology after his retirement’; he served as a principal of some college for 10 years, and for the subsequent 8 years he was chief of security at Puttaparthi! Surely he s blessed by Sai Baba! He also remarked that their department can be proud that two chief ministers have studied there.
Had a fast darshan of the Lord of the Seven Hills, paying Rs. 500/-. The next day I visited Srikalahasti too. Returned to Ahmedabad on the 31st, but left for Andamans on the 11th April with Dr.s Ray, Narayana and Raja Ganeshram. The latter two joined us at Chennai. On the same day of reaching Port Blair, we visited Chidiyatapu and saw the sunset and places affected by the tsunami. The next day we travelled to the northern tip of Andamans to a place called Diglipur. It was a long journey lasting for 12 hours. Our vehicle was transferred twice on ferries while crossing over to islands. Saw freely roaming elephants, Jarawas begging for tobacco from tourists, and mud volcanoes. SINP has a centre near the mud volcano and a local person has been employed to gather data. We stayed in a government GH at Kalipur beach (excellent food cooked by Bengalis), saw Oliver Riddley turtles’ eggs being protected by the Govt. In the morning of 13th, we went around the beach, noted coral terraces, forests with huge padang trees. We collected coral samples for dating. In the late afternoon, we went to the twin islands Ross and Smith in a high speed motorboat, the one usually used by James Bond. We had a good swim in the sea. Tamil New Year day (14th) was again a long ride back to Port Blair (I realized I forgot to collect my mobile charger). We stopped at Baratang and visited the caves. The boat ride reminded movies which I had seen in the National Geographic Channel about forests around the Amazon. The caves are beautiful, we must explore for more. On the way back to Port Blair, we saw a green gecko, called the emerald gecko, typical of Andaman. On 15th we travelled to Havelock Islands by a high speed ferry (Makeruzz). The inside looks like an aircraft. We stayed in a hotel called The Kingdom. On arrival we visited the nearby beach. I saw 4 elephants; we hired scooters (Rs 300 per day + Rs 100 for 2 litres of petrol) and moved around at high speed. Hardly any traffic there! I was only worried about elephants chasing me! In the evening we rode to Radhanagar beach, 12km away, which ranks 7th in the best beaches of Asia. This is really a beautiful place. We had a good swim for 2 hours, looked at old, uplifted, coral terraces.
Visiting the Elephant beach next day was fun. Snorkeled for 2 hours and saw beautiful live corals. I noticed that corals have grown faster than giant clams (Tridacna). The high speed ferry brought us back to Port Blair. Ray and I visited the ISRO Centre, got the first good cups of tea (made using milk rather than powder) after our arrival in Andamans. On 17th we visited the Ross Island, where old British buildings are found in a dilapidated state and trees have grown around them. This is the poor-man’s equivalent of Angkor Vat.
In the hotel we stayed, 50% of the menu was not available. This seems to be the case for most restaurants we visited. In Diglipur GH, when we asked for bread for breakfast (you need to book every meal well before), they said no; but the next morning they served bread for foreigners!
Visit to the Cellular Jail was moving. Most photographs of freedom fighters were those of Bengalis, my respect for whom has gone up after seeing so many had sacrificed their lives for our freedom. We also visited the Anthropological museum and learnt about Nicobar, which in general, tourists are not allowed to visit (A former Captain of a ship told me that if I go there I may not come back alive!). There is more Burmese influence in Nicobar.
The next day we were in Chennai. We visited Venkatesan, who came with us to eat lunch in the nearby Sangeeta. As usual he started his moped and went ahead of our taxi. This time I remembered to caution him to be slow and not to lose us. I bought all my podis from Grand Sweets and some freshly ground coffee powder too. Thanks to J S Ray, who made it all possible.