Andaman Islands -3

On the second day of our tour, it was destination Ross Island. It is a small  island very close to Port Blair. There are a number of boats ferrying visitors from Port Blair to this island and back. In addition to Ross Island, the boat takes us to two more nearby islands. A mesmerising view of the corals underneath the seabed will be the highlight of the day.

Touring Andaman is very easy. No need to involve a tour operator well in advance and do extensive research to have a nice trip to the islands. Once a good hotel is traced, the rest of all falls in place. Hotels, unlike in other tourist places in the main land are not so expensive, though I have no first hand information about the tariff. There are a number of tour operators in Port Blair. It is very easy to get in touch with one of them with the help of the hotel reception. They take care of our tour needs. Hindi is the most common language but there are people who talk many other Indian languages apart from English. Communication is not at all a problem because we get a feeling that we are still in the main land. Port Blair, to me. looked just like any other Indian town. 

Ross Island

Most of the tourists I came across were government employees. They come in small and big groups availing LTCs. I was told by the driver of our vehicle that most of the tourists who visit Anadaman are from Steel Plants, Refineries and other government organisations in India.  The best time to visit The Islands is December. We must certainly avoid a visit after May 15th as monsoon sets in by that time. During monsoon, travel to many islands will be difficult as boat and ship services will be disrupted due to bad weather.

We too tried to claim LTC but failed to get the money back from the government as we traveled by Kingfisher airlines instead of the state carrier Indian Airlines. Still, we felt the tour  highly entertaining and worth the expenses incurred. We got a chance to see the beauty that has been abundantly bestowed by the nature on a handful of islands.

Ross Island was the place where the British Masters, in charge of the Cellular Jail lived. They constructed many buildings to help them live a luxurious life. All these symbols of tyranny against a helpless lot over the opposite side, ie, the Cellular jail, are in a dilapidated condition at present. Only the church used by the officers remain in its shape there. Cellular Jail is visible from the Ross island. Sitting comfortably in the sprawling bungalows' balcony,  the babus would have planned many a method of torture to be used on those helpless but highly spirited human beings toiling their life in solitary confinement. 

Port Blair - a view from Ross Island

There is nothing great to see in the island except getting a feeling of a place where so many heartless men spent their good time in a picturesque island wining and dining. Of course,  we too can enjoy ice creams, cool drinks and snacks if we do not feel anything about the abominable colonial babus. The administration is collecting an entry fee to 'maintain' the island. They, it looks, allow the remnants of slavery consign to earth slowly. 

 The boat took us back from the island after an hour or two. The boat operator loaded additional tourists who were left out by another boat. The boat started off with more people than it could carry. The operator was forced by the Tamil speaking tourists of the boat to off load the extra persons at the starting point itself. That was very heartening- people responded to a potential hazard in time and avoided a disaster. 

Collecting 'Souvenirs' - the sea shore is full of breakaway pieces of corals

The tour operator then took us to another island. We were transferred onto small boats there to have a glimpse of corals. The bottom of the boat is made of transparent glasses that has magnifying property. The boat was operated by a small hand held propeller. 


As the boat moved around, an amazing view of the corals under the sea bed unveiled in all its beauty. Different kinds of corals in myriad colours and shapes were a scene that could never have been missed. We have to visit the Islands at the least to have a look at these beauties lying in the womb of the sea. 

Have a look at the corals on youtube:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATWcS-BLGWs

The Emerged India

At Chennai Central Railway Station

This is Chennai Central Railways Station. I am statnding on one of the platforms here. I am on my way to my village in Kerala. This train starts at 7 pm, runs around 700 kilometers in less than three hours and reaches Ernakulam Junction Railway Station at around 10pm. From there, I shall just walk down to the Maglev station and catch a train. This train covers nearly 40 kilometrs in 8 minutes. Luckily, it has a halt at Olavaipe Railway station. After getting down at the railway station, I shall walk to my home. That means, by around 11PM, I am back home. Exactly about 4 hours ago, I was in Chennai !



The Maglev Station at Olavaipe

Last night I have been to the Porur Lake in Chennai. How marvellous it is! The jaw dropping scenes all around the lake is attracting lots of tourists to Chennai. Cooum River is no longer a dirty stinking water body. Instead it carries drinking water that is enough for the entire metro.


I went to Chennai to meet some officials at the US Consulate. There is an increase in number of workers -skilled and unskilled- from US,  interested in taking up jobs in our country. I need to go to different cities of America  and European countries like Germany, France and Italy to conduct interviews and recruit people. Now, more and more people from these countreis are queueing up in front of Indian embassies in their countries to get visa.

Thanks to the liberal policies of the government and the new outlook acquired by the citizens, I could start a transformer manufacturing unit in one of the Industrial Parks in Kerala. This industrial park is situated right in the middle of my village!  There are around 20 more such well constructed and managed Industrial Parks in Kerala itself. People in Kerala stopped politicising and communalising everything.

Finally I followed the dictum - if you cannot conquer it, join it. Power factor and magnetic lines of flux were like nemesis. The magnetic flux lines used to choke me consistantly. The mistery of flux and power factor are not unraveled yet, but, I decided to live with it. 

My transformer factory employs around 500 employees, mostly from US and Europe. Most of the Westerners working in my firm can speak Malayalam so fluently. All of them speak Inglish. I recruit only Westerners who know Inglish. Now, if we happen to travel in US cities like LA or New York or any European cities, we can see a number of advertisements offering spoken Inglish courses to the public. There are a number of institues all over these countreis that offer speoken Hindi courses also. I could see many Indians in Western countries now more than willing to speak in their mother tongue. Their children too are encouraged to speak in mother tongue. Not knowing mother tongue is no longer a fashion among Indians.

A fly-over in Patna

My company is exporting high quality transfomers to all over the world. China is the biggest market for us followed by our very own Uttar Pradesh. UP, of late grew, by leaps and bounds. The growth rate of the state touched more than 30% in the past many years. This is 5% above the national average. No elephant menace any more. People started thinking about things out of the caste and religious boxes. I have a plan to set up a manufacturing unit for robots in Olavaipe. There is a great demand for the state of the art robots in the automated industreis in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh

My wife is a suceessful sofware solution provider. She has established a multi-crore Software Solution company in an IT park situated in my village. Her firm provides comprehensive software solutions to the huge automated industries in Bihar. Bihar is now known as the power house of India. No more caste based violance, no more starvation deaths there.  Another exciting thing about Bihar is that it has become the most literate state of my country now. Nalanda has become the knowledge capital of India once again 

Now, there are no party flags fluttering in front of the manufacturing units. Last time I have been to Bangalore. There too, they have stopped insisting Karnataka Flag in front of the manufacturing units and offices. The only flag fluttering everywhere in India  is the Tricoulur. No more Jai Telangana slogan shouting. No more Jai Maharashtra slogans. Maratis have started looking beyond the borders of their state. Maratis and Biharis have become Indians and started living together in perfect harmony. Kasmir issue has been resolved. Everyone accepts that Kashmir is for every Kashmiri. No religion is the sole proprietor of Kashmir. Only human beings who accept all other fellow human beings live there now. They are all Indians. All those stone throwing morons underwent reformation, accepted the inevitable and joined the main stream. They live happily ever after that...

The Lane Discipline - Indian Model

Indians are a disciplined lot. Corruption is buried along with many more unpleasant things long time back, Though traffic is more, people show amazing lane discipline. This ensures smooth flow of trafic even during peak hours. There are bridges over bridges wherever roads intersect. Punishment for traffic violations is severe that includes cancellation of licence. Policemen are no way interested in petty amounts handed out by the motorists

All the palatial places of worship are converted into hospitals, orphanages, old age homes or  shopping malls. In Kerala, many of the places of worship looked like five star hotels once upon a time. The civilised society, lately realised the dangers of encouraging man made disasters like religions and gods. They could manage to contain these disasters to a great extent now.


Religion has been declared a private part of the human body. Those who opt to follow religion shall keep it stricltly as a private affair and is illegal to bring it up in the public realm. The most heartening news is that the sick minded religious leaders and priests found their right place -the mental assylums. They happily settled down there along with their fanatic followers. Men, women and children at last found peace of mind. They learnt the art of  peaceful co-existance with various faiths and idiologies.

In my country, the Prime Minister is no longer remote controlled or appointed. We have an able leader who has been elected by the people, and he leads a government of the people and for the people. Chief ministers are not selected based on caste or religious considerations. Merit and only merit matters. We still have democracy in its truest forms and secularism and socialism are the leading lights of governance.  Anna and his team miserably failed to goad my country's democracy towards military barricade. Jai Hind

Visakhapatnam - some feeble memories -1

The picture that comes to our mind while thinking of a train is its engine. The pitch black cylindrical shaped engine is the trade mark of a train. It makes a loud chugging sound. Makes long and loud siren. Eats coal and drinks water. Above all it spits thick black smoke. There is a beautiful rhyme that narrates a train -generally known as "theevandi". Our childhood imagination about a train always revolved round this rhyme. 


Those days, booking  train tickets was like a Herculean task. My father or his trusted lieutenants used to start from our village well before the day break. The nearest booking station was Ernakulam South Railway station. Tickets were being issued manually and they were in a form of thick small sized cards. By the time we reached the ticket counter, it would be well into the late afternoon. They usually reached back home - mission accomplished- well after the sun set. 


The best way to reach Ernakulam from our village was to first walk around three kilometers to catch a bus. At the finishing point of the bus, there were boat services to Ernakulam. This was arguably one of the most exciting journeys in the world. The boat cruises in the back waters, filled with people from all walks of life. We all had to solely depend on water transport system to see the outer world. All around,we could see only greenery. 

I doubt if there was anything more beautiful than this on  earth. This journey was always a one and a half hour treat to our eyes and minds. Pristine waters, virgin lands, enchanting islands, umpteen number of china nets, tiny wooden boats floating on with a single fisherman in each of them, big wooden boats engaged in mining mud were the most riveting scenes all along this journey. All over the lands, we could see tall and rich coconut trees. 


In the middle of these greenery, there stood small but constructed in traditional architecture houses and the familiar tea shops close to the boat jettys. Looking at the 'vadas', 'puttus' and 'neyyappams' decorated in the almarahs of these tea shops that stimulates a sea in the mouth was a familiar event in every journey.  Even now, there are no much changes to these jaw dropping visuals. But the boat services ceased to operate, thanks to the all out developmental activities and roads and bridges all over.

Preparations for the journey to Visakhapatnam from Olavaipe starts well in advance. There was no direct train to Visakhapatnam from Ernakulam. The train first reaches Madras Central in the morning after running for nearly 24 hours. Then the east bound coaches were detached from the train and dragged to an isolated place in Chennai. These coaches are kept in the yard for nearly 12 hours. In the evening, these coaches are dragged back to the railway station and connected to the Calcutta bound train. 

Here stood the Moore Market once upon a time

Many people get down at Chennai station and take a round of the city. The favourite destination for many of them was the Moore Market close to the railway station. This was a famous market in Chennai that dealt in used goods predominantly. A huge Railway building replaced the market long time back.

The entire journey was like a pilgrimage to Kasi. We had enough time and could afford to take such arduous, painful journeys. The last item in the baggage was a bed roll. The sleeper class was known as second class and the berths were without cushions. Such seats are seen in the unreserved compartments even today. So, bed rolls were an essential part of a journey those days. On the third day of our journey, we reach the Waltair Railway Station. This station is presently known as Visakhapatnam Junction.

I have very faint memories of my life in Visakhapatnam during my childhood (I was born in Visakhapatnam however). Still, a few things are vivid in my memory's canvas. Of course, the first among them was the "theevandi" itself. The monotonous journey had nothing to remember but it did help make good friendships and relations - most of them lasted till the end of the journey however. The compartments used to fill up with the ash flying out from the engine. If we were happened to be in the front compartments, the engine sounds, the siren and above all, the ash used to make the journey a hell.

Another thing I can recollect is the scenes of the "thottis". The manual scavengers were called like this. This was the most derogatory word used in Telugu to describe a person. People were still there to do this job. People took to this job mainly as their traditional job and is rooted in the obnoxious caste system in the society. They visited our toilet twice in a day. Our toilet was also a dry toilet where there was no septic tank or a closet. The human excreta is discharged on the ground itself which was picked by these manual scavengers. They carried a vessel on their head to carry these human wastes. 

I am ashamed to tell this, but that was the reality. There are people to do such odd jobs too. Still I can see so many people entering the manual holes of the sewage system in Chennai city to clean the blockages. We cannot even look at the job they do, though we were also the reason for these types of clogging!


 If manual scavengers were not there in Visakhapatnam, we too would have joined the mass of people who attended their nature's calls right on the road sides. I still remember how the roads of Visakhapatnam- big and small looked. Both sides were always filled with human excreta and it was quiet hard to walk along these roads those days. Even in the broad day light, people were seen sitting on the road sides going about their business.

Everyone cannot ascend to the revolving chairs in the air conditioned glass houses. Everyone cannot stick to the arm chairs. It is not a crime to work hard and achieve great things in life, but everyone is not that lucky to lead a worry-less flashy life.

 Ivory towers will stink if the sweeper does not turn up to clean the trash cans. Dirty linens will pile up if the servant misses a day. Still a servant maid is treated so shabbily by her employer if she is late to come even by a few minutes. Her meager salary is cut for minor lapses.  Don't these people belonging to the lowest strata of the society deserve a better deal?

Appooppanthaadi -51

That was the end of it. The third China visit ended on a pleasant note, yet again. This time, I took all pains to experience the speed of a land moving vehicle that touches 430 Kilometers per hour. I reached Shanghai to catch my flight back to my home country well before its scheduled departure. 

A view of Shanghai from the Maglev Train

The weight of my check-in baggage was 6 Kgs more than the allowed 20Kgs. I could hardly walk carrying all these heavy baggages along with me. A coolie approached me at exit gate of  the Shanghai railway station. He had a small trawley to ferry the goods. Seeing his poor looks, I agreed to employ him to transport by baggage upto the taxi stand. I offered him 5 yuans for a hundred meter walk but he demanded 10 yunas. I did not object to that anyway.

Longyang Maglev Station

From the Shanghai Railway station I reached Long Yang Railway station by taxi. The taxi's meter read 57 yuans. When I paid 60 yuans, the driver did not return the change. This is not new in Shanghai. Some drivers do this when they take the passengers for long distances. We on our part cannot argue with them due to the language problem.

The track of the Maglev Train

The fastest land moving vehicle, in as much as I know, runs between Longyang railway station and Shanghai Pudong International Airport railway station. This is a train working on the principle of magnetic levitation.

By the time, I reached Longyang railway station, it was 12 in the noon. In the time slot between 1200 to 1500 hours, this train runs at 300KMPH. From 1500hrs to 1630 Hrs, it runs at 430KMPH. So, I decided to wait at the station till 3pm. 

There were chairs at the station nearby the ticket counter. After having a cheese burger, that was offered without the customery meat in it, upon my demand at the Mc Donalds joint in the station premises, I settled down in one of the chairs. The price of the cheese burger without meat costed me the same as one with meat. 

I was passively observing people who passed by me. So many  westerners were seen coming in and out of the station. Suddenly I heard a heavy voice, shouting "you how much?" "you how much?" Two taxi drivers were follwing a group of westerners and bargaining the fare! 

Despite repeated announcements in English by the public address system of the railway station,  advising the passengers to take taxis only from the taxi stand, these people from the 'advanced' countries approach unauthorised taxi drivers. Of course, a number of taxi drivers hanging around there asked me too if I needed a taxi. These taxis run on pre-fixed rates and the customers, mainly the westerners were seen bargaining with these drivers. 

I just could not take a nap sitting in the chair. How is it possible when the scenes like a boy and a girl standing right by the side of the ticket counter hug each other, lip lock and then remain so for a long time unravels out there? My eyes scanned every nook and corner of the vicinity. Though, no one was even looking at this scene, I, out of curiosity threw indirect looks at it. Please note, it was out of mere curiousity and  certainly without crossing the limit of the presumed decency. Be sure, no eveil eyes were cast on them even though my eyes were green!

The VIP Class

The maglev train has two classes. One is economy class and the other, VIP class. While the economy class costs 50 yuans for a single ride, VIP class costs 100 yuans. Thanks to my employer, this time I went for a ride on VIP class. Surprisingly, I was the lone traveller in the VIP class that prompted the coach attendant to verify my ticket. 

Out of the nearly 30 seats in the compartment, I sat alone with a camera. Though there were a sizeable number of travellers, none of them dared to spend 100 yuans. I too would not have spent it, had my company not refunded it. 

The spped touched 431KMPH in 3 minutes

The train started off at 1500 hours sharp. The digital display unit in the compartment started moving as fast as the train. Within 3 minutes, it touched 431 Kilometers per Hour. The train moved just like any normal train. But, travelling at such a high speed on a vehicle that does not exactly touch the ground is a different experince indeed. After touching the 430KMPH mark, the decelaration started. within another 3 minutes, it reached the destination - 30 kilometes in 7 minutes.

In front of one of the containers

But still, I should not miss to mention about a sad thing. 7 people were fired from the manufacturing unit that I have been visiting for more than two months in China. This is a container manufacturing unit owned by a Scottish national.

The Scottish manager has been sacking the people at the drop of a hat. There were only flimsy reasons attached to his actions. Out of the seven, 5 were workers and 2 were engineers. I was literally taken aback by the way people, even the working class, are trated in a country that was known for nurturing communism once upon a time. I must strogly suggest this :Look at China to learn about the pitfalls of capitalism. Study tours can be organized to China to have first hand feel of how a capitalist system works.