Page 13 - TSB ebook

Travelogues and memories

A journey across India ….

Hi Friends,

Another travelogue for all of you to suffer. The only reason behind uploading this is to provoke

some of the batchmates to try and plan a trip to this place, those who have not been there

already. I have found more people, within and outside Bank, who have been to Singapore /
Malaysia, but have not tried this place, and hence the effort. I am talking about Lakshadweep

Group of Islands. It has been a couple of years since I and my family went there, but the memories

have remained fresh because of sheer blissful time we had.

Why Lakshadweep ?

During LDFP Mukund happened to tell me once that “you have seen one beach, you have seen
them all”. I disagree with him today. Water beckons me more than mountains and more I see

beaches, the more I like them. Now hold it folks, I can hear the guffaws. The preference for

beaches is certainly not out of any interest in the people around there in their “natural” best. In
fact most of the beaches I have been to, hardly have any crowd around. I and Wife share a

preference for places where the crowd does not follow you, or vice-versa. The place should be

as idyllic as possible with no Taj Mahal or Gateway of India to be compulsorily seen as part of the

itinerary. The idea of a Holiday is to just relax, eat and sleep. Hence Lakshadweep. Even after 60

years of independence, this place is yet to get commercialized and run over by the tourists.

Destination

Kavaratti is the biggest island and is the administrative HQ of the Union Territory (UT). Minicoy

comes next. The other inhabited islands are Bangaram and Agatti. The destination depends on
the mode of travel and the type of package one opts for. The air strip for the UT is located at

Agatti island, the only place where 700 meters of straight piece of land could be found among all

the islands. There is a Helicopter service from Agatti to Kavaratti, but the preference is give to