For honeymoon, we decided to go to Lakshadweep Islands. As the name denotes it is a collection of a number of islands. We planned to go to our destination from Cochin ( Kerala ) , travelled by train and went to the airport to enquire about the flights to go to Lakshadweep. (Both railway station and airport are situated in Ernakulam ). But, we were informed that the Islands are restricted for outsiders and we could not go by our own and they advised us to approach the tourism department, where they arrange package tour to the Islands. ( Lakshadweep Islands are restricted for overnight stay and anyone visiting the Islands must leave the Islands by around 6pm or so. )
And ,there was a package trip by ship- the ship was a commercial one and the tourism department was having a collaboration with them for the pack of tourists to go to Lakshadweep . Before the trip started , we were staying in Ernakulam -in Bharath Tourist Home, which was much near the sea, and evenings we used to walk upto Subash Bose Park, where the sea ( or backwater ), is so near and we used to sit on the barrier stone wall adjacent to the sea , facing the sea - looking at the water, at the sky getting darker slowly, like what the other people were doing.
For the seaport, we have to go Willingdon Island from Ernakulam by ferry. There is also connecting road, but shortcut is by ferry. Cochin was neat and quiet - before 30 years. We saw the ship on the day of travel. The name of the ship was "Tippu Sulthan ", and it was very big in size and pure white in colour. Looked beautiful. And, since Cochin harbour is a natural harbour , we boarded the ship right from the shore, not with the help of a boat. We climbed the stairs outside the ship from the shore to the 2nd deck (the levels are called as decks in a ship , I think. ) Later on we came to know that the ground level was full of fishermen and working class people , who were friendly , first deck I don't know who occupied and the second deck- part only for us, and the upper deck. The ship had a big dining hall, a gathering hall also. Quite a big ship and when it was off to sea and deep inside the sea, it was like a world in itself.
If you go to the upper deck- onetime I went alone, and see and keep on seeing, you can see nothing but water. (S s- Here I want to remember onething and compare onething. Remembrance is my father's phrase , "Water water everywere, not a drop to drink. ". Comparison is about the cruise we travelled from Mumbai to Goa in the year 2019 , where the ship was travelling along the shore and we can see the lights far off at all the time we were travelling. But, towards Lakshadweep it was not so, since the ship is not travelling along the shore, but, going away from the shore. )
Thus, we climbed the steps to get into the ship, up, up and up and while looking down, I felt thrill. We were allotted a cabin with 4 beds in the second deck. And the other occupants were also a honeymoon couple, Murali and Sandhya from Karnataka. Murali was a swimming instructor and what he did was, he partitioned the cabin into two, using the long and big canvas, which was provided in the cabin for emergency purposes. Now, we had a half of a cabin with a full of privacy.
So far, I have seen only biscuit colour or light brown colour sand. The sand used for mixing with cement in construction, ( while we were children we played sitting over the sand pile, digging caves in the sand pile- while digging we will get wet sand and water, and building sand house ) the sand of river bank- there used to be a vast stretch of sand at the Ambarampalayam river bank, which was my birth place, and sands of many sea beaches . The sand of Marina beach in Chennai, when we first saw in 1980-81 was of light biscuit colour and now it is of light brown colour. And seen beaches in eight coastal cities and towns. Heard about white desert of Egypt - it was supposed to be a seabed in the past. Also heard about the white sand of Andaman and some more sea shores. The first thing that striked my eyes when I stepped down in Kavaratti Island was it's white colour sand. So adorable that thinking about that I feel like taking it in both hands and have a look !
We went, we ran, we shouted, we collected so many shells. They were selling sands in packets. We went to three Islands totally, Kavaratti, Kalpeni and one more. Unlike in Cochin,which is a natural harbour, the Islands do not have a natural harbour. So ,the ship will not go upto the shores of the Islands. We had been transferred to a boat to reach the shore. If I remember correctly the ship used to stay quite a few kilometres in the sea and we were transferred in a big boat initially and then by few smaller boats to the shore. We are allowed to be in the Island till evening - and before nightfall we must leave the Island. And once again we were taken back to the ship. And again travel. So, travel during night and sight seeing during the day. Since we had been to many beach shoppings, buying so many products made of shell, bamboo, hats, ornaments etc at the long strech of small shops which aside seashores, we did not have much interest in buying things. So, our shopping was minimum.
And dolphins - while we were travelling in the sea, there were so many dolphins , swimming alongside the ship and jumping. My husband took me to the cabin and the crew members did not show any restriction and in fact they explained the functioning. Since we were a small group, all got friendly and sang songs, wandered played etc. The blue, green and blue-green lagoons were just BEAUTIFUL.
Many people talked Malayalam there. We went to houses over there and they welcomed us inside, we saw the interior of the houses and children. Once, the guides arranged a dance performance by young men, and if my memory is correct, the song resembled some form of Mapla malayalam song. The people do not look like tribal people, but resembled Indian. The possibility is the people we saw were not aborigines of Lakshadweep , rather the people who shifted and settled there from India -mainly from Kerala, long ago.
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