In the midst of all euphoria and heartbreak in equal proportions for the Indian sports fans in the on going Olympics , I managed to take a detour from the frenzy to the remote and isolated corners of the islands in Andaman.
Strangely for the first time in my life we had directly headed to the cellular jail soon after we descended in Port Blair. Despite the haggard me, I turned truly emotional when I set foot in the prison where every brick had a story of horror to tell the world.
Surely the lachrymal glands became overactive when we just stood in the place where numerous unsung heroes of our freedom struggle breathed their last. The museum inside the prison captured the sheer torture the inmates were subjected to and there was hardly anyone who managed to go back alive.
The statues of some great fighters who dont find a mention in our history books seemed to be standing majestically in the park overlooking the prison. As you slowly take a stroll in the cellular jail your heart is already too heavy thinking of all the supreme sacrifices for the freedom of our great nation.
The experience and the feel you get when you enter the cell where Vir Savarkar was kept is hard to describe. You involuntarily utter your prayers to all the selfless martyrs of our great nation and simply salute them for their heroic deeds.
The giant trees which were witness to such monstrosities somehow is intact to the present day. I just prostrated before the tomb as a mark of respect for the lives that were laid down for the freedom which we have been enjoying for the past decades.
The laser show in the evening again emphasised the extraordinary struggles and untold miseries of our men to remove the British from our shores.
Then we headed to anthropological museum and the stories about the jawa, sentinelese , nicobarese and showmen tribes were no less spinechilling. Much to our consternation some of these tribes are still untouched by the advances in civilisation.
We had to get up in the wee hours to catch the ferry to Baratang Island the next day.
