Andaman and Nicobar Islands Holiday

I woke up at 2 am to catch my flight to port Blair and thus began an exciting family vacation to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Facts I found interesting of the islands : Andaman's is part of India but is 1350 km away from India but jut 600 km away from Burma and Thailand. There are 572 islands and Of these, about 38 are permanently inhabited. Andaman and Nicobar island is home aboriginal indigenous tribes, some who are disconnected with the so called civilized world. The primary language spoken among the local people of Andaman's is Hindi and it was so pleasant to have people talk Hindi around me.
The first sight of the beautiful islands from the aeroplane was breathtaking. Lush green islands, white sand beaches, clear blue water and an endless open sky with fluffy clouds and millions of stars at night. Such beauty engulfed my time at Andaman's. After landing at Port Blair we took a 90 minutes ferry to Havelock island, where we were to spend the next 5 days.
Havelock Island is named after a British general, Sir Henry Havelock, who served in India. Havelock is a small island of the area 92 sq km and width of the island is 8 km and length is 18 km.
While the main activity on the Island is Scuba diving, which my brother and father indulged in, I spent my time relaxing, swimming in the ocean and snorkeling. We stayed at Dive India, in cute little bamboo cabanas.
  Snorkeling : Such prepossessing marine life exists in the clear waters of the ocean, so many colours, so many types of fishes and a whole different world. Just the simple tool of a snorkel mask and pipe enabled me to see so much and enjoy my time. At Nemo reef there was no instructor, we were by ourselves. The unknown territory of the ocean is scary yet so inviting. My fears did not allow me to go too deep but there lots to see even in the shallow waters. We also visited Elephant Beach, however this place is more touristy, where you can only go into the snorkel site with an guide. We saw lots of things but the snorkel trip was too short in time and I did not get to immerse in the wildlife.

Swimming in the ocean : I love the beach and I love playing in the crashing waves and swimming in the waters. I was little dissapointed with the super calm, almost nil wave beach in front of our resort but that is what Andaman beaches are famous for, clear blue calm beaches just perfect for a swim. Interestingly in low tide, the water retrieves into the ocean, leaving a long stretch of ankle deep water for you to stroll in, among the rocks and soft ocean floor. I enjoyed the waters but I was thrilled when we went to Radhanagar Beach where we playing in the crashing waves,
Oh what fun!

Everyday we tried a new restaurant for dinner, I ate some delicious sea food. If you are going to Andaman I recommend Full moon cafe for breakfast, Green imperial resort has some yummy fish sizzler and prawn soup and salt water cafe has some good salads and fish n chips. We also had good juicy fruits at Andaman's, including refreshing.
Surprising myself, I did some clothes shopping at shops near the jetty, clothes imported from Thailand. I actually enjoyed the shopping. Interestingly I met a street vendor selling gulab jamun on the roadside.
After 5 days of relaxation, we went to Port Blair.

The ferry back to Port Blair was horrible,I felt claustrophobic, motion sick and uncomfortable on the ferry, the loud disco songs and dancing did not help the situation.
In Port Blair we visited the cellular jail, the history was interesting but I did not find anything very great. We ate dinner at Golden Dragon a Chinese restaurant run by a old Chinese couple, it was some yummy seafood Chinese food.

With tribesmen, we went for a Bird watching trip in the forest of Andaman's. Such a beautiful forest, with huge trees, dense greenery and so much peace. We saw some beautiful birds and had a wonderful birding trip at the chidiya tapu forest.

The trip was also a time for me to spend time with my family, connect with them. We spent  time sharing and listening to each other, which otherwise doesn't happen in the busy life. After many years my brother and I shared a room and I enjoyed the fights and conversations we had.
How much ever I enjoyed the trip, I was glad to be back home and tired of the travel. It was a memorable and beautiful trip.

Life beyond development workshop

Life beyond development workshop was a three day workshop to question the current system and lifestyle and look at things with the lenses of environmental sustainability and social justice. This workshop was a prototype, an experiment and the first time we were doing this. This meant facing a lot of challenges and lots of learnings.

The first thing was managing the registrations and number of participants, with last minute cancellations I was getting apprehensive if we would have enough participants in the workshop. I was also nervous about the whole thing because I was going to be facilitating people older to me. I was taking care of the overall workshop, the logistics, doing content development and was co-facilitating the workshop, so much work was exciting yet stressing at the same time. So much I was engrossed in making the workshop perfect that i neglected to care for my body and I felt sick during the workshop, and that was and because I couldn’t give my 100% to the workshop but still things worked out.

What I really enjoyed was preparing for the workshop along with the team, sitting together, brainstorming and discussing about things that make us feel alive. It did not feel like work.

The workshop began with questing the definition of development, questioning the system and the how the different players in the system are involved in the development game. We talked about one of the biggest roles we play in our life – consumer. How we have fallen trap to a culture of consumerism.We explored the true cost and hidden impacts of our everyday things like mobile phone, clothes, plastic, petrol, water and electricity. We also experienced water privatization and water inequality through a game. We spend time in nature, reconnecting to the trees and grass. We played in the earth to reconnect with the mother. Spending time in silence with nature helped rebuild the relationship that gets lost in cities and busy lives. So many problems, so much destruction makes one feel hopeless and depressed, to bring hope, inspiration and motivation to go on a path of change, we explored solutions. Its time we change the system at a whole, redefine happiness, success and development. We experienced this by planting trees and getting our hands dirty.

A group of 12 participants, all deeply connected with this topic, eager to learn and discuss. Their questions, curiosity and yearn to understand things really helped the workshop to go deep and to really create meaningful content.

The overall experience was very nice and I feel great to have held a successful workshop on life beyond development. To have ignited some spark in a few people to start this journey of sustainability in their own ways. Of course there were lots of mistakes and lots of room for improvement, that is the beauty of reflection and feedback, we can do a better workshop next time.

Money was a big challenge for me and I messed up big time, owing us to go almost in loss. Asking money, deciding the workshop fees and putting monetary value to the work we are doing yet not exploiting anyone was a challenge and I have learnt not to compromise around money.