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Published: January 5th 2009
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Beckoning lagoon
Minicoy boasts of a large lagoon and a unique lifestyle Shades of blue span through the horizon. An electric blue lagoon, a cobalt sea and an azure sky. From atop Minicoy lighthouse, MV Kavarathi anchored off the vast lagoon looks like a paper ship. Tourists try to retrace the long boat ride from the ship to the jetty as the bored watchman regulates traffic on the narrow ladder leading up the tower. Metal halide lamps have replaced oil lamps, now showcased in the top chamber. But a thermometer and a clock, built in London at the time of the beacon’s commissioning in 1885, still work.
The 41.7-metre-high lighthouse, the archipelago’s Mt Everest, illuminates up to 40 nautical miles. But even sailors voyaging the Pacific and the Atlantic dream of it. It is the first sign on their way back home. The legendary island of seafarers has a representative in almost all ships crisscrossing the seven seas. Wherever pirates strike, whenever a ship goes missing, whatever be the ship’s flag, it’s bad news in Minicoy. The island economy floats on tuna, tourism and dollars sent home by sailors.
The women, however, have to depend on Kochi, the nearest mainland port, to spend the paycheck. The island doesn’t even have a
Blue rainbow
View from atop Minicoy lighthouse, the highest in Lakshadweep. Yonder, MV Kavarathi. movie. They pickle tuna, listen to Mappila songs and watch Malayalam movies on television until the festivals - Republic Day to Independence Day and Id to Ramzan - come, when they put on their glittering gowns and dance around. Minicoy stands apart from the rest of the ten inhabited Lakshadweep Islands with its distinct culture, costume and lifestyle.
While the rest of the islands speak a customized Malayalam, Minicoy speaks Mahl, a dialect of Divehi, the language of the Maldives. It has its own script written from right to left. While the rest of the islanders can easily vanish in a crowd in Kerala, Minicoy women stand out in their colourful gowns and stitched headscarf. The attire was more elegant before the conversion to polyester, going by the exhibits in the marine museum in Kavarathi. Even the boys have acquired a distinct Minicoy identity, with their fascination for fancy jeans and flashy shirts.
The 9495 people (by 2001 census) of Minicoy are separated from the rest of Lakshadweep islands by Nine Degree Channel. The closest island is Thuraakunu, part of the Republic of Maldives. Minicoy’s unlikely place in the Indian Union-administered archipelago has the sanction of legends -
Tuna ahoy
After a good catch. Minicoy has a tuna processing centre, which cans export-quality fish. The Kannur king helped the islanders devastated by a cyclone when the king of Maldives refused to - and a 1956 plebiscite in India’s favour. Despite its cultural connection with the Maldives archipelago, Minicoy was always politically linked to Malabar, under the Kolathiris, the Arakkal dynasty, the British and the Union of India, which on November 1, 1956, incorporated it into the Union Territory of Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands, renamed Lakshadweep in 1973.
“This is the female island,” declares Shabana, the local lass entrusted to lead the tourists. “Have you seen a girl as guide in any other island? They don’t let them. Here it’s not the case. Women have a place in society.” The Muslim society in the islands is strictly matriarchal. After marriage, the man stays in his wife’s house unless he decides to build a house for his family. Inheritance is matrilineal. Minicoy goes a step further. Women don’t hesitate to emphasize their enviable social position. Minicoy, or Maliku, qualifies to be the “female island” Marco Polo described in his travelogue.
“If a man wants to marry a girl, he has to give her gold and her parents money. But it’s not a must.
The sailing line
Minicoy is an island of legendary sailors. They sail the seven seas in almost every ship. All we want is a good husband,” Shabana continues. Mainland tourists - from Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Kochi - find it incredible, but comment the islanders for their concern for women. In Minicoy, an empty room in the bride’s house is allotted for the couple. It’s the groom’s duty to furnish it. “Women run the home, they keep the money,” Sahira, Shabana’s colleague, testifies. Man takes his wife’s family name after marriage.
“Minicoy people are as friendly as any other islanders. They are expert sailors and fishermen,” Sulfiker Ali, a businessman from Kerala who frequents the islands for work and leisure, had told us the previous evening in the ship. “They live in clusters. Some people say it’s a legacy from the anarchic past when the island was frequently targeted by pirates,” he said. Unlike the other Lakshadweep islands, the southernmost Minicoy lies close to international sea route. The islanders huddled together to defend themselves against the pirates.
Shabana and Sahira lead us through Bada village, one of the ten settlements (avah) in the island. Community life centers round the ‘village house’, where all the elders assemble under the chief for special occasions. Women gather in the
Boatman
Minicoy's large lagoon is a tan-seeker's paradise. adjacent ‘ladies’ house’. All important decisions are taken at the village house. Weddings and other functions are also held here. Life in the village is characterized by joint families. Married couple doesn’t generally opt for an independent house. A whole family tree comprising three or four generations coexist in a single house of two or three big halls. “Sometimes there are up to 40 members of a family living together,” Shabana says.
Even villages are clustered in this 10-kilometre long island. We hardly leave Bada village when Shabana shows us another ‘village house’ and ‘ladies house’, colourful structures with fine handcarved woodworks. It’s Aoumagu village. Children splash in the sea. Old women dreamily gaze at the sea from thatched huts. Fishing boats and paraphernalia are stored in a large shed. Two boys wash fish in the sea. Women walk away with tuna tails jutting out of the vessels on their heads. A catch had just been distributed.
Islanders have specialized in tuna fishing. The pole-and-line wisdom is labour-intensive, eco-friendly and species-specific. The fishermen catch small fish and keep it alive in wicker baskets floating in the sea along with makeshift buoys. When they are ready to go to
the deep sea, they pour the small fish into a specially designed tank in the motorized boat. It will be the tuna’s bait. At the deep sea, they submerge the long lines and pull it out with tunas. With each pull, tunas fly rhythmically into the boat. Minicoy has a tuna processing centre where the fish is canned. Tuna, the third big variety to be globally traded, is also the island’s staple diet. The islanders pickle and dry it for a rainy day. Dried tuna, locally known as mas, is an ingredient for a whole lot of dishes. They even make appam with it.
The administration-run Society for Promotion of Nature Tourism and Sports (SPORTS) offers tourists scuba diving in Minicoy and Kavarathi. The shallow lagoon of Minicoy forces divers to go to deeper parts in a boat. The 4.80 square kilometer island has a 30.60 square kilometer lagoon. The waist-deep lagoon stretches till the cobalt border, where it suddenly dips to deep sea. SPORTS manager P Koya promises to take us scuba diving at Kavarathi tomorrow. The lagoon loses its rich blue as we get into it. The white coral sand dominates the palette through the transparent water. A barren underwater desert of calcium carbonate. It’s noon. Salt crystallizes on dried bodies.
We resist the urge for a sweet siesta to gaze at the sky. Local boys play football on the beach. Football and volleyball are the dominant games in the islands. Like in cuisine, Lakshadweep resembles Malabar in sports preferences. The goalie finds a crab and burrows after it. His teammates yell at him. As the local mosque gives the call to namaz, the players’ mothers bid us goodbye and leave the beach. The girls accompany them. The game goes on.
Just before boarding the boat to the ship, a cultural treat for the tourists: local girls present traditional Minicoy dance with plastic pots. They throw in two more items, Oppana and Daf Muttu, probably taken from the mainland. We expect Lava dance, performed by male drummers, but the time is up. The ship is waiting.
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