It was a typical lunch session in my office along with my 3 indian co-workers. One person had just returned from a trip to Hawaii and was sharing his experience about how beautiful Hawaii is and that each and every person should visit Hawaii. Apparently the two other co-workers had also been to Hawaii, with me only the one not done the “must do” karma of visiting Hawaii.
Now all my 3 co-workers started vexing me that I should also go and visit Hawaii and I am missing out on so many things. Usually I am not a person who comes under peer pressure but to be honest, this time the peer pressure was intense.
That day, after coming back home, My wife and I were discussing about our upcoming trip to Bharat in Jan / Feb 2012 and were thinking of some place to go for vacation in Bharat. I maintain a “places to visit google spreadsheet”, which I opened up and was going through the list.
My eyeballs stopped at the entry where it read “ Kaala Paani” a.k.a Andamans / Port Blair. The entry of Andamans had made to my list due to the cellular jail. It was one of my dream to go and visit the cellular jail and do my part and offer Shradhanjaali to not only Savarkar,Barindra ghose; but to all those countless forgotten freedom fighters who had went through the horrific ordeal of getting a life sentence known as Kaala Paani – so that our Country could be Free !!!
But I would have never thought that what awaited me at Andamans would be an eye opening experience to many forgotten chapters of Indian freedom struggle – some of them which preceded even the Cellular Jail construction times !!!
After doing much research online – finally I booked my flight and hotel to Port Blair. During the entire booking process and even after that I was thinking whether I am taking the right decision and how safe it would, how it would be etc etc (Similar questions I have received from others when I tell them that I had visited Andamans).
However with the firm resolve of not letting go of this opportunity (Jan / Feb was supposed to be the best season to visit Andamans) plus having enough leaves to take – We decided to take the plunge !!.
Cellular Jail / Kaala Paani :-
· The first place we visited in
Andamans was obviously the Cellular jail.Just as you enter the gate, on the
left and right side inside there is an exhibition hall having all the details
(photos etc) about the inmates of Cellular jail.
·
The central tower (from
where all the wings were connected) had more details about from various places
of Bharat from where Freedom fighters were deported.
·
After paying homage to
various known and unknown freedom fighters, we visited - Savarkar’s cell :- per
the information given to me – Britishers were very smart and did not have a
record of which inmate was kept where, rather they were given numbers.However
thanks to Savarkar’s book about his kaala paani experience, gov was able to pin
point the location of his cell.
·
Finally in the evening
we attended mesmerizing “Audio and visual show about the Kaala Paani” in
the open ground of the Jail. I must say that it is an amazing and well made
show which bought the entire Kaala Paani saga in front of our eyes.
·
We were getting
disturbed from fellow Indians who were talking on their mobile phones even when
the show was going on. My wife was very angry that when would we learn to
respect our freedom fighters / History;or atleast not disturb others.
I would not go into more details about cellular jail - as I have made a special photo slide show about Andaman experience which shows more details of Cellular jail in a visual format.Refer to the end of this blog for the video.
Viper Island:-
After visiting the most sought after tourist spot (for me a pilgrimage) called as “Cellular Jail”, next day We boarded a boat tour to three islands – Viper Island; Ross Island and North Bay (Coral island). The company which operated the tour was “Pearl Tours” and we were fortunate to have an amazing guide with us whose name was “Mani”.
North Bay island is an amazing island which has excellent crystal clear blue water, where we did our snorkeling. I could not believe my eyes while doing the snorkeling and watching the corals and fishes beneath.
Ross Island was used the Britishers capital and has many old structures, bakery etc.
However I would like cover here the third island – Viper Island – which is one of the forgotten chapters on our history.
“Viper Island was a Hell on Earth, where thousands of our famous Freedom Fighter of 1857, War of Independence and the later Freedom struggle that continued in different regions of India were sent to Andamans to be incarcerated in the Viper Island Jail. The convicts were rebels, mutineers, zamindars, maulvis, prince, and maharajas, all were put to the hardest of task.”
Unfortunately – it seems as per the current government plans – they are planning to open a luxurious hotel in Viper Island and endangering the sanctity of a place like “Viper Island” where countless freedom fighter spend their sentence and were hanged.
For more details about Viper Island and the protest against this project – please visit http://andamanchronicle.com/content/view/6060/27/
At Viper Island, after climbing a small hill, we came to a structure which had a wooden plank on the top. Our guide explained that this was the place where the freedom fighters were hanged by the britishers before cellular jail was built.
Mani was bang on target and was emotional when while explaining he said “Today you / your kids might be knowing lot of things, computers; games, iphone, ipad etc but how many of you know about great freedom fighters who were hanged at this very place so that our beloved country could become Free, How many of you know about Viper Island ??"
Mani had become so emotional while narrating the story that I am sure it gave everyone present – goose pimples. I managed to capture some part of it on my video camera.
His emotional speech – of 1 minute is must see below :-
Aberdeen War Memorial:-
This memorial again opened up a new chapter of Indian history which I was not aware of and would have probably never learnt it had I not visited Andamans.
Aberdeen War Memorial is a 3 meter High structure and it is built to commemorate the Battle of Aberdeen, which was fought in the year 1859 in-between the Andamanese aborigines (vanvasi's) and the intruders to the island – Britishers !!
Quoting from an article written by Pierre E - who is a retired Professor from Denmark -
(http://www.pierreevald.dk/misc_files/andaman.htm)
"This 'battle of Aberdeen' May 1859 was probably the worst case of
genocide in the British colonial history of tribal encounters, a veritable slaughter
causing a sudden decline in the number of young male Great Andamanese and thus threatening
the genes and future survival of the tribe. The deaths of the young Great Andamanese
resulted in a decline of population as they constituted the core of the reproductive age
group. The consequence was a long lasting impact on the entire population, who could never
make up the loss"
The Andaman Government setup a statue for these Brave Soldiers in the Sea Shore of Marina Park as a memorial as it brings the spark of first freedom movement in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Havelock Island / Radhanagar Beach:-
This is heaven on earth and in my opinion beats any other beach. No wonder it was selected as the best Beach of Asia (not me – its Time magazine saying - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/asia/0,9263,501041122,00.html )
I have put up another slide show which has photos of all these places. Refer to the end of this blog for the video link.
Balidan vedi:-
This was the most shocker of all. It was 30th January 2012 and as per my usual habit; I picked up the local newspaper and was going through the pages. Being a Martyr’s day, the local news paper had carried an article about a memorial located in Homfreygunj in Andamans – known as “Balidan Vedi”.
On finding more about this memorial; it boiled my blood and made me aware of another unknown chapter in the Indian Freedom struggle.
Balidan vedi memorial hardly figures in any of the Travel brochures of Andamans. When I requested my tourist taxi driver to take me over here as well, he was frustrated and said that “its very far” …this and that..basically was trying to avoid.
However I had made my resolve to visit this place and pay my homage to the great heroes. I then struck a deal with him and asked him to remove two places from his list of places remaining to take me around and instead take me to Balidan Vedi memorial at Homfreygunj.
Here is a short story about Balidan Vedi - The Japanese occupation of the Andaman Islands occurred in 1942 during World War II. Japanese committed many atrocities on the local population over there in Andamans.Japanese were killing rampantly.
They were also particularly suspicious of everyone who was non Japanese thinking that they were spying for the British.
During one such tragic event, the Japanese took 44 Indian members of Indian Independence League on a hill and on charge of spying – shot all the 44 people on 30th January 1944.
They were buried at the same place resembling a mass grave.These 44 people were from all various regions of Bharat and were fighting to free Mother India from the clutches of Bharat but unfortunately they were not able to escape the dreaded clutches of the Japanese forces.
For more details – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_the_Andaman_Islands
Hoisting the Tiranga for the first time at Port Blair by none other than Netaji SubhasChandra Bose:-
I came to know that Andamans was the first Indian territory to be freed from British Rule by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and he hoisted the National Tri-color for the first time on the Indian Soil @ Andamans !!! Or should we call – Shaheed and Swarajya Dweep – as renamed by Netaji !!!
http://zillion2ndinnings.blogspot.com/2009/12/netaji-gave-first-freedom-to-india-in.html
Last but not the least, as I had became a swayamsevak from USA (before coming to USA – I had never visited any R.S.S shakha anywhere in Bharat), I always wanted to visit a shakha in Bharat. My dream was fulfilled and I attended my first ever R.S.S shakha of Bharat in Andamans.
I also visited few Seva (service) projects conducted by R.S.S which consisted of helping the poor and needy kids with education etc. I was amazed and inspired by the sevika’s who were helping in the Seva activity.
I was also fortunate to attend the talk by Dr Purabi Roy (who is an acclaimed researcher) which was organized by the local Vivekananda Kendra at Port Blair, Andamans. Dr Purabi Roy after almost 10 years of research has come out with a book on Netaji called "The search for Netaji - new findings". I also bought one copy of the book. The most startling revelation (from many) she made was below -
"INA had so much wealth. It was around Rs. 72,000 Crores leave apart donations in the form of gold. Where has the money vanished, she asked relating to her revelations. My findings also indicate that Lord Mount Batten, a year before India’s independence had requested Jawaharlal Nehru to discuss on the wealth of INA and they had decided it. Nehru had proceeded to Singapore soon after the request sent by Lord Mount Batten. When Anna Hazare is fighting against corruption in the independent India that ways back to 1947, I am surprised no one talks about corruption in the pre-independent era, Purabi commented.”
For more details – please visit - http://andamanchronicle.com/content/view/5293/27/
Comparing with Hawaii, where we could have only done Scuba diving, snorkeling, beach etc, We were NOT ONLY able to do all that (scuba, snorkeling etc) in Andamans but were also able to experience a great and important part of our History by visiting the memorials and Cellular Jail. And did I tell you that all this at only 30% of cost of 3 person Hawaii trip ?.
At the end of our trip, it felt like I have come back with lot of energy, inspiration and with a resolve in me to ensure that my each and every action / step is for the benefit of my nation, my country and my Dharma !!
Please view this slide show which gives an overview of the entire historical perspective of the islands in a nutshell - must watch !!
And this slide show is about all the various places to visit from tourism perspective -
