'Z' for Zest For Everything That Fascinates Me

                                                Zest For Clouds, The Sea,
                                                         And Life   

Perhaps life has given me lot of "Time", despite having to do the things,  that all normal women do in their lives, cooking, housekeeping being pulled from various directions, sometimes making us feel our time is not at all ours to use it as we would have wanted to use it.   
Yet, I somehow managed to have my own "Me Time".   In the midst of all this, I managed to do my post graduation, did a 1 year diploma course in the subject of my interest, then went ahead, and trained myself in Aerobics, Yoga and Weight training, learnt swimming etc., went and got myself 1st and the second degree of Reiki, and finally even got trained and certified to be a Reiki master: aren't you surprised?
 In the meantime, I was regularly contributing " Middles"  for Deccan Herald too.
 I remember being often asked as to how I managed to do all these things and also watch my favorite Soap Operas "The Bold And The Beautiful", "Santa Barbara", talk shows like, "Oprah Winfrey" etc. (those days i was really hooked). Of course I had no answer, for I myself didn't know how I was doing it. Although it was hectic, I somehow enjoyed that phase of my life, and I have no regrets.

I had this zest for life, I had to accomplish a lot  of things, and that too at the right time.
Soon my interest moved on to taking many spectacular cloud photographs, photographs of  our house both  interior and exterior, I never thought I had the knack to capture everything just the way I wanted. I found an excellent site to showcase our house and be appreciated, and also be  inspired by other photographs posted there by other people. This site is: houzz.com.
 Then I had another outlet and that was Flickr and also Cloud Appreciation Society, and from these sites, I made some really good friends from all over the world, sharing the same passion for photographing the clouds, the sunsets, and the sunrises. I never had so many friends in real life  as I have in the virtual world.
Of course,  how can I forget to mention the blogworld and the FB. With the internet opening up so many channels of interaction, I hardly ever felt the need to go looking for friends in the real world. Whether it is travel or food blogs, or polishing up our knowledge we have everything right here.
Okay, before I get carried away, here is what we did in the last 7 days. We decided to visit Andaman Islands for our 33rd wedding anniversary. 

We had planned a trip to the Andaman Islands some 2 months back. Some things didn't happen as planned, but on the other hand it landed us with some unplanned, yet pleasant events  before we finally landed in Andaman Islands. So no regrets here too, it was kind of serendipity,  I must say.

From the plane we could see so many Islands, so much lush greenery, everything looked picture perfect:

                                      Could it be one of the unexplored, or forbidden islands?

The blue sky, the blue sea, clouds  dancing merrily,  and the greenery, what more do you need?

 We liked Port Blair too, it is a nice little town, has many Handicraft shops, cloth shops where every shop has dresses made by Binny Cotton Mills and also materials of the same company, We stayed in Abeerdin which is right in the center of this town. Here you would find a big clock tower right in the in the center known as Ganta Ghar. Look how well lit the whole area is and the streets look very lively and bustling with activity.

We visited the Viper Island: It was hit by tsunami in December 2004.  It was the site of the jail where  the British  used to imprison convicts and political prisoners. It  has the ruins of a  gallows atop a hillock. The jail was abandoned once the Cellular Jail was constructed in 1906.  Before, the Cellular Jail,  it was this jail  in Viper Island, where the worst  kind of terror was inflicted on those who struggled to free India from the British rule.

                                           on our way to the Viper Island from Port Blair

The conditions at the jail were so notorious, that it got the name,"Viper Chain Gang Jail".Prisoners were chained together and confined during night by a chain running through couplings of irons around their legs. It was here, that these prisoners were said to be given the harshest labour, the Britishers were absolutely ruthless.

Among the ruins one cannot but feel the deafening silence........

The voices of so many freedom fighters shouting  the slogan, "Jai Hind", "Jai Bharat", " Vande Maatram" seems to be still lingering here. Every brick seems to say, I was witness to the horrors committed here....

The Cellular Jail:

One has to admire their zest for life, their zeal for freedom despite undergoing such hardships under very trying conditions, for they did not want to die without seeing their country freed from the tyranny of the British rule.

I wish we would often think of such brave people, who fought relentlessly for our country, for without them, we would hardly be breathing the free air around us, and be living  in a free world.
So this brings me to the end of the A-Z challenge, though for me  it was not a big challenge, for I never challenged myself to update everyday.
However, I would definitely update more about Andaman Islands, for there is so much to share. 
Now without delay can I expect some quick responses from all my blogger friends, what are you waiting for?
Shoot off your comments .....

Happy Deepawali!!