Sahyadrica

I have always wanted to visit the Andaman Islands, and I had written to Pankaj nearly half a decade ago about it, but I didn’t intend to visit the islands as a tourist, especially after the tsunami. The trip however never materialized and years later, today, Pankaj helped me visit the great islands through “The Last Wave”, and I learnt much more about the island than I would have if I were to visit as a mere tourist. Simply put, the book is relevant to those who have been to the islands as it is to those who wish to. Cover of The Last Wave: An Island Novel by Pankaj Sekhseria, Published by Harper Collins The Last Wave’s cover is outlaid on a mellow shade of green, with sights and signs distinctive of the Andamans: a Jarawa standing on what appears to be the Andaman Trunk Road, a fish and a dinghy signifying the basic livelihood of the island, a mugger basking near the base of the book, and between the title and the name of the author rests the flower of Papilionanthe teres . T...

“The earth is shaking as the tree falls with a great thud.” – Boa Sr, Songs from the Great Andamanese 6,808,300,000 – The number of people living on this planet. 3,000,000,000 – The number of people living in poverty. Over thousand tribes exist on this planet, but no one knows how many tribal people live or how many die.  It is disheartening to hear of someone you know pass away, but it is different to hear of someone, who is the last person of a tribe, to pass. The difference lies not just in knowing that a person – whom you never met or thought of – passed away, but in the very thought that the person was the last one to die. Something that makes my mind twitch. Survival and other media reported the passing away of the last member of a tribe from Andaman Island  on January 26. “ Boa Sr , who died last week aged around 85, was the last speaker of ‘ Bo ’, one of the ten Great Andamanese languages ”, quoted the article Extinct: Andaman tribe’s exterminati...