Question

Travel is a bug that was in me when I was born, probably inherited from my father. In twenty years of travelling widely through India, I have been most fascinated by those little islands that dot the Bay of Bengal off the East Coast of India. Yes, I am talking about the Andaman Islands. Andaman Islands somehow seemed almost sinister, with images of being haunted, bleak and scary, until my parents actually returned from a trip to Port Blair and told us about these serene islands. We immediately awaited the first opportunity to take a break and check them out. 2. Finally, the D-Day came and we were all ready. We boarded the aircraft and to our surprise found that there were several empty seats. On enquiry, we learnt that all supplies to the Andaman including newspaper and meat go from the mainland and so there is always more cargo and less people. 3. Port Blair airport is a small, old airport that was constructed in 1947. On my way to the hotel I noticed that there are none of the usual auto rickshaws that noisily wend their way through most Indian towns. There was only one traffic signal in the entire town and the roads were more ups and- downs than level. This was all surprising for a person like me who has lived in the coastal towns of Chennai and Mumbai. 4. The colour of the sea was an unpolluted blue, a colour that I had not seen in any of the beaches in India. It was calm and beautiful. I was thrilled with the fact that we were going to spend ten entire days there. All we had to do was sit in the open restaurant, look at the sea, enjoy the cool breeze and feel good. 5. The Andaman Islands are a group of several islands, so most of our sightseeing was by boats. There are a total of more than 356 islands there. Even the oldest boatman, Rathnam, had seen only 200 of them. I figured that ten days was surely not enough to get a full picture of this place, so I started to store every sight, every sound and every smell. The sound and light show at the jail sent a shiver down my spine. (This trip was before the movie ‘Kalapani’ was released). The realisation that those who fought for our Independence had lived, struggled, suffered and even died here left an impact.

Why was the author surprised when he reached Port Blair? *
(a) The airport was very small. (b) There was only one traffic signal in the entire town. (c) The roads were more ups and downs than level. (d) All of the above​

Answer 1

Answer:

option d thanks for asking