#ATOZCHALLENGE DAY 18: R for ROSS ISLAND | Remains of History

~~ It feels good to be lost in the right direction ~~

Click by me (sometimes i manage to capture something nice)

Ross Island was discovered by Archibald Blair, a prominent hydrographer of the East India Company and later Governor General of India in the late 18th century. Ross Island once an administrative headquarter of the Britishers is just few miles from the Port Blair before the moved out from here to Port Blair due to the 1941’s earthquake.Until then the Britishers settled in the Ross Island with their families and all the basic amenities like Bakery, Church, Water Distillation plant, Hospital, swimming pool, tennis court etc was made available for the families. 

Water Distillation Unit

This made it easier for the British officers to row down to Port Blair and monitor the construction of the Cellular Jail which is visible from the island. Also, the name of the island was given after Sir Daniel Ross, a known marine survivor of the days.

The port at Ross Island

Currently the Indian Navy has rebuilt some of the remaining structures like the bakery to make these remain for a little more longer in the history. Below is an image of the Church in the 1940’s and now.

The Church back in 1940’s at Ross Island

The Church now

This island has no settlement and only people who are put up here are the Indian Navy for security reasons. Tourists generally come here for 2 to 3 hours considering its one of the must visit place in your Andaman vacation travel, but if ask me it’s a place where you can spend a whole day and still not want to leave it.

Did you notice the peacock?

The best part about this island is you can walk around the coastline and complete one full circle of the island spread over 70 acres:) while witnessing beautiful seascape, trees, birds, peacocks and deer  up close which would be a breathtaking moment as it’s not possible in today’s city life where all you can see is buildings, malls and roads around you.

Shades of blueeeee

Since the island is right in the middle of the sea, one can experience cool wind breeze which is very refreshing.  

The beach is very small in width on the other end, also if you notice every where boards are placed stating not to loiter the place.

One can explore all the remains of the British settlement and this might even surprise you that they had even built up tramlines. There is another theory which says there is a high possibility of a underground sea tunnel which was built from Ross Island to Port Blair. The exit point being under the huge Mahatma Gandhi Statue reading a book in the Gandhi Park. 

The Japanese occupation of the Andaman Islands occurred in 1942 during the WWII. The Japanese bunkers and cannon still stand as a memorial in this island.  

Japanese bunker

A light and sound show similar to the one in Cellular Jail is shown from Monday to Sunday except on Wednesdays and Public Holidays. The show starts at 5.15 pm and one can take the 4 pm boat from the water sports complex in Port Blair and to reach the island after the 15 min boat ride. 

North Bay Island as seen from Ross Island

Note for first timers – Do not expect any water sports activity here or restaurants except for a couple or two small tea shops run by the navy. Do carry your ID card because it would be registered in the log books of the Indian Navy. Because it is a remote island, please carry all essentials. You won’t find a shop.Do not visit the island without a watch on your hand, because you can be mesmerized by the beauty of the island and easily miss your ferry back 🙂 🙂 🙂

Ross Island by far is my favorite place/island ( 😉 ) of all the islands in Andaman and Nicobar and surprisingly this island does not have a beach. Yes! Now you may wonder how come an island does not have a beach  secondly why would a place without a beach be my favorite even though there are other beautiful places like the Radhanagar beach or the Neil Island. And I totally agree, it’s a fair question. 

Aerial image of Ross Island

My top five reasons why I love the Ross Island are  

1. It’s just 15 to 20 minute boat ride from Port Blair and hence the most visited island. Also it’s called the gateway of Port Blair as its present right in the middle of the open ocean. 
2. These islands have super friendly deers that come close to you (reminder: Feeding these deers is a punishable offense) 
3. If lucky you would end up seeing a couple or more peacocks. As a kid when there were not much tourists visiting these islands, I remember looking for peacock feathers fallen on the ground and would always be lucky to get at least one.

   

   The old printing press

    

4. These islands are picturesque even more because of it ruined architecture. The old remains of the British settlement now standing with the support of banyan trees and nature taking over the creation of man engulfing all of it on its own. This island definitely makes you feel nostalgic. 
5. The best part side of the island is the back side the one which faces to the open ocean. Earlier when people used to visit these islands for picnic they would settle down almost near the port side and have fun but my family always used to walk down to the other side. A 10 minute walk and the other side of these islands is open. Before Tsunami there was a small stretch of beach where we would spread our mats and sit and have fun but post Tsunami, the beach got sinked. It was because of Ross Island that the Capital city, Port Blair was saved from one of history’s tragic earthquake and tsunami, the water waves which were almost 10-15 meters in height got divided into two directions once it hit the Ross Island. The damage done was the submersion of the small peaceful beach on this opposite side I am talking. Now It’s just few rocks and then directly the open ocean. 

So yeah there you go, all the reasons why I love this island. And all my reasons justified in these images you saw so far. I must tell you this is one island when you won’t stop clicking pictures 🙂 

Still not over, hold on few more 😛

Night view of Ross Island from Port Blair – PC : Experience Andamans

The coconut trees

The Banyan trees that engulf the whole island

Happy Blogging!!! Live.Love.Laugh ❤ ❤ ❤

#ATOZCHALLENGE DAY 11: K for KAALAPANI (Story of Prison Life)

Kaalapani (derived from Sanskrit words ‘Kal’ which means Time or Death and ‘Pani’ which means Water), was a colonial prison in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. The prison was used by the British especially to exile political prisoners to the remote archipelago. This was the Cellular Jail about which i had spoken in my previous blog. 

Why was it called Kaalapani? – Apart from the tortures the prisoners went through in the Cellular Jail there were many other factors that added to the name of Kaalapani. There was no escape from these islands back then. Even if one managed to escape from the Jail, it was difficult to survive the harsh climate of the islands. Most of the prisoners who tried escaping , died due to diseases like Malaria and ones who survived the nature were killed by the native Tribes of the island. There was no way one could swim and reach anywhere but be deadlocked in these chain of islands.

I would like to share the STORY OF PRISON LIFE from the autobiographies of some of the famous freedom fighters who spent their youth in getting India its freedom.

Extract from the autobiography of Barindra Kumar Ghosh
“The next morning we came out and washed our faces and then had for the first time the darshan of GANJI, otherwise called KANJI. It means boiled rice churned in water – one may say a sort of rice-porridge. We were given each a dabbu full of this dainty…………“The daily ration per meal is as follows—Rice 6 oz, flour for roti 5 oz, dal 2 oz, salt 1 dram, oil ¾ dram and vegetable 8 oz…………….“Each of us was given an iron plate and an iron dish, red with rust and smeared with oil. These could not be cleansed at all. “A half pant, a Kurta and a white cap were provided for each prisoner. But he was not provided with any change for taking bath except a langoti which hardly covered the nudity.“……….The langoti we were given to put on while bathing could not in the least defend any modesty. Thus when we had to change our clothes we were in as helpless a condition as Draupadi in the assembly of the Kauravas. There was no help. We hung our heads low and somehow finished the bathing affair. Then I understood that here there was no such thing as gentleman, not even perhaps such a thing as man. Here were only convicts,”
“After finishing the ‘breakfast’ with the ganji or kanji every prisoner had to commence the work allotted to him which kept him engaged practically the whole of the day with a short break at midday for lunch. The principal work which was also the hardest was connected with coconut.
“To pound the coir and extract fibers out of it, to prepare again ropes out of those fibers to grind dry coconut and also mustard in the machine and bring out oil, to make bulbs for hooks from the shells-these formed the principal items of work for the prisoners,………
“The most difficult work was coir-pounding and oil-grinding………… Each one was given the dry husk of twenty coconuts. The husk had first to be placed on a piece of wood and then to be beaten with a wooden hammer till it became soft. Then the outer skin had to be removed. Then it was dipped in water and moistened and then again one had to pound it. By sheer pounding the entire husk inside dropped off, only the fibers remaining. These fibers had then to be dried in the sun and cleaned. Each one was expected to prepare daily a roll of such fibers weighing one seer” 

Based on autobiographies of Savarkar & Ullaskar Dutt
Oil- grinding was the most difficult work allotted to prisoners in the Cellular Jail. This was the hardest work and caused the death of some, insanity of one and a general strike of the prisoners. It furnishes the most pathetic evidence of callousness bordering on inhumanity on the part of the authorities.
Savarkar, describes it ………. “We were to be yoked like animals to the handle that turned the wheel .Hardly out of bed, we were ordered to wear a strip of cloth, were shut up in our cell and made to turn the wheel of the oil mill. ……….. . The door was opened only when meal was announced. The man came in and served the meal in the pan and went away and the door was shut. If after washing his hands one were to wipe away the perspiration of his body,the jamadar who was the worst of gangsters in the whole lot would go at him with loud abuse. There was no water for washing hands. Drinking water was to be had only by propitiating the jamadar, while you were at kolu; you felt very thirsty. The waterman gave no water except for a consideration which was to palm off to him some tobacco in exchange. If one spoke to jamadar his retort was,” A prisoner is given only two cups of water and you have already consumed three. Whence can I bring you more water? From your father?” we have put down the retort of the jamadar in the most decent language possible. If water could not be had for wash and drink what can be said of water for bathing?

While describing the prison life Ullaskar Dutt narrates-“In our village only oxen are harnessed to the oil presses and even they can not extract more than 16 pounds of mustard –oil in one day. Here, in the Cellular Jail, I was harnessed to the oil mill with two other prisoners and were required to produce eighty pounds of coconut oil by evening. The Jamadars would make us gallop and if our pace slackened, we were beaten mercilessly. We would stumble and fall, and be beaten senseless everyday.”

Such were the hardships that the freedom fighters faced every single minute of their lives spend in the Kaalapani. If you ever get a chance to visit the islands, if not the beaches make sure you visit the Cellular Jail. Feel the unbelievable sacrifices thousands of young men made, in the prime of their lives, for the cause of India’s Independence.

P.S : missed the post for yesterday J ,gonna publish it tomorrow (facepalm 😦 ) and am sure you would love it when published. It’s going to be about the famous Tribes of the islands – JARAWAS

Happy Blogging!!! Live.Love.Laugh ❤ ❤ ❤