Lakshadweep, the Land of One Hundred Thousand Islands

Lakshadweep – in Sanskrit it means the land of one hundred thousand islands. Located in the Laccadive sea, this archipelago is the smallest of all the union territories of India. Only ten of the islands are inhabited, for which Kavaratti serves as the administrative capital. To get to Lakshadweep, we boarded an Air India flight from Kochi which flew us to the island of Agatti. Agatti not only houses the airport for Lakshadweep, but also connects to Kochi by sea.

The water is so blue. That was my first thought when I looked down to the sea. It was azure blue, turquoise green, aquamarine blue – the sight of this beautiful, rich color just fills your mind and prepares you for an memorable experience of a lifetime.

Our stay was confirmed at the government resort at Kavaratti. From Agatti, the island was a high speed boat ride away. Imagine my glee when I saw this beauty waiting to zoom us away to our holiday destination.

But the happy moments didn’t last long. They definitely didn’t survive the two hour long ride. I could feel my stomach doing somersaults as the boat bounced up and down and cut through the waters. Finally my prayers were answered, and we reached Kavaratti. It houses a cooperative hospital, and a couple of secondary schools. They also have a desalination plant to cater to the needs of island’s inhabitants. Since most of the inhabitants trace their roots back to Kerala, Malyalam is the most commonly spoken language in the island. Having said that, we never had any trouble communicating with the locals. We could converse in English, Hindi, and my limited knowledge of Tamil.

The port had a desolate look; our van driver informed us that most people had gone to the mosque to offer prayers. By the time we reached our resort, it was almost four o’ clock.

Our next couple of days were spent exploring the sea. On our glass-boat ride we saw quite a few corals, both dead and live ones. The white corals are the dead corals and they are found in plenty around the shoreline of the island. Even the fish here were so colorful! The fishermen who had accompanied us, had brought along bread to feed the fish. I also got a chance to feed them a few crumbs. It was a thrilling moment to feel their tiny mouths as they fed on the bread crumbs. That was definitely one of the most memorable moments of the trip.

 

 

 

 

This post was written as part of the month long #septemberchallenge hosted at Everyday Gyaan.