Grub, the island!

Grub. The word may not sound appealing all the time, but when you are in Andaman, it calls out to you. Grub is a tiny island not very far from Port Blair. Surrounded by small lagoon and a reef, it has a bright and shiny crescent beach.

From a distance it appeared barren and abandoned. But as our boat approached the island, we realised it was full of life. Our boatmanu00a0Pandian said, "It is tiny, but one of the most exciting islands in Andaman." We got down from the boat in the lagoon to walk to the beach. It was a hot and humid November day, but the gentle breeze and the beauty around made all the difference.

Bright green creepers with exotic purple flowers decorated the grounds, reaching up to the foothills of a hillock that is full of evergreen vegetation with some really tall trees.

We started following Pandian. Exposed stones in the water were slippery. After a while we saw huge number of dark brown boulders spread all over. They were different from the reef stones and coral stones. Most of them were almost spherical and were of all sizes.

"Sir, I have been cheated several times here..." said Pandian. When asked to elaborate he informed us that many films have been shot here and he was handed several minuscule roles by filmmakers. But when he went to watch those flicks, he realised his acts had been chopped off. Pandian was emotional, but minutes later he started smiling. "If I happen to shoot any film here, I'll definitely cast you Pandian...don't worry!" I promised. I am not sure he believed me.

After passing the hillock we got back to the white sandy beach again. There were some interesting caves underneath the hillock; homes to crabs.u00a0Traversing through Grub does not take more than half an hour. But the beauty and marvel of nature keeps you mesmerised till long after.

This island is part of a Marine National Park that spreads into fifteen islands in the Bay of Bengal. Grub was an oval shape island until the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 trimmed it down. That was natural disaster, but Grub had to survive a man-made one as well. A few years ago during the visit of a VVIP, numerous proud inhabitants, the sea snakes, were killed.u00a0

Before I could ask if any survived, I saw many long parallel crawl marks along the beach. The fiercely poisonous sea snakes love to roam the beach at night when the sand is cool. Pandian took us to a small hut with a narrow entrance. There was an abandoned wooden slab on the ground. He lifted it. Bright black stripes black on metallic silver-grey bodies dazzled our eyes. Pandian put the slab back carefully. Our dayu00a0was made.u00a0

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