(Nature eating buildings : photo courtesy – www.galenfrysinger.com)
The setting is the Asian theatre of war where the Allies are pushed up against the Axis powers and against Japan in particular. The time is the second world war. The British war HQ in Asia is set in a little island among the Andaman group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, halfway between the Indian mainland and Thailand. The hectic social life of the British army officers garrisoned there is under threat. The Japanese are close.
Ross Island finally falls to the Japanese and once the Japanese too leave, is left to mother nature. And what a takeover she has done. Massive trees grow across every building built by the armies. Huge vines strangulate erstwhile offices and churches in a brutal, slow-motion tableau. It is one of the most vivid testimonies to the power of nature that we so often under-estimate.
The day I visited Ross Island, mother nature was at her ferocious best. After I had done the island for a couple of hours, I got back to the tiny shed that was the boat jetty. While waiting for the boat, I saw a very black line that extended from the sky to the sea moving towards the island. And in the next 10 minutes hit the island. The craziest, weirdest and the most powerful tropical storm I had ever experienced broke with a banshee screech over the little island and howled and roared for the next 30 minutes. I was born & brought up in Kerala, so I know rain. But this was something else. Even at its height, the monsoon rain that reaches the coast of Kerala does not have anything resembling the malevolence of this storm. Perched in a tiny shed, on a little island, in the vast reaches of the Bay of Bengal, I understood why the seafolk in Kerala worship ‘kadalamma‘, the goddess of the sea. Nature is divine in its fury and I was privileged to glimpse it on Ross Island.
Go there if you can. You might get to see God.
The Long Hol 
Great post! And I like the picture too. Reminds me of the recent bestseller, “The World Without Us” which speculates of what traces of us would linger and what would disappear if mankind were to get suddenly wiped out.
Soulful post – I enjoy the take you give to your travel. It reminds me of Rings of Saturn in some ways.
Shantanu, Madhuri – many thanks. Both books sound very interesting.
hey… u have aptly described the scene at the ross islands. i’ve visited the island and had exactly the same thought. but i am not so good at wording the thoughts. great job….
Hey Punam – thanks & welcome to my blog.
I enjoy seing any thing from Andamans. Thanks hari. I was born and brought up in Andamans. Away here in Delhi, I miss the life I spent in Andamans, the hill, open sea, beach, coconut water, fishing, boating, roaming in forests and so on.
Hi Vincent – welcome to my blog. Yes, I can understand the desolation. All of us ‘sea-farers’ living far away from saltwater should probably set up a self-help group. On my part, I try to run away to the sea as often as possible.
Hi, I visited Andaman islands in November 2008. Missed the fun(!) you had by 2 days. The water was still mucky and I could imagine me as a tiny speck in a tiny island in the vast sea. Looking at those buildings entwined by roots made me to appreciate life more. The day before I return I had the thrill of land sliding under my feet twice which was explained as nothing but tremor. Wonderful trip!