MYSTICAL ISLAND: CHAPTER 1

NOTE: This story is based on Author’s fiction. It does not apply to any historical references and real-life incidents. This story is a tribute to two of my close friends- Sam Dev Mohan(who died before three years) and Aariyaan.

2018, NOVEMBER

26-year old Jack Christ from the Indian Christian Missionary group in Kanniyakumari decided to go to the North Sentinel Island, India illegally. Those who live on this island are called North Sentinel tribes. According to the report from Discovery, it is said that they are the only tribes in this world who cannot be contacted.

So what does it mean? They doesn’t even know that there is such a world existing around them. According to them, they are aliens. Jack was a Christian and had a lot of belief in God. He thought of teaching Christianity to the people in North Sentinel Island. So what Jack did is…He went to a Island which is near to that Island, and gave 25,000 rupees to a local fisherman there and asked him to take him to the North Sentinel Island.

NOVEMBER 14, 2018

On night of November 14, 2018 they started their journey and since it was night they tried to escape from the coast guards. Jack carried, a cobra camera, some pairs of scissors and a kayak to cover the rest of the distance that is, a small boat in which a single person can travel. He then took some fish, football and a Bible as a gift to the North Sentinel Tribes.

They reached the Island on November 15, 2018 morning. Now Jack asked the fisherman to stop the boat away from the island and asked him to wait there itself. Now he took the kayak and went near the island.

When Jack reached the shore he saw some houses. And two sentinel tribes women talking. He left his kayak in the bench, and got ready to speak to those women. Then he saw two men coming towards him with a bow and arrow. Now Jack looked at them, and said: “My name is Jack and I love you. Jesus loves you. Jesus gave me the authority to come to you.” He gave them the fish that he bought for them.

He said all these by standing far away. But those two men got ready to shoot him with their arrows. Jack who was scared, took his kayak and left that place. Now after few hours, he again tried. Now what he did is, he went to the opposite direction of the shore that he previously came. There he saw six sentinel tribes standing on the shore.

As soon as they saw him, they started to scream. But he was standing in a safe distance form being attacked. Then he felt that they were conveying something to him. But he couldn’t understand what they said. Not only him. No one in this world could understand the language of the sentinel people’s language. So now what Jack did is, he started to repeat the same thing to them, which they said to him.

When he said that, sentinel people started to laugh at him. The reason might be, they might have said a bad word to insult him. Now Jack slowly approached near them. But within a safe distance he dropped down everything he brought. There a lady and a child stood with a bow and arrow.

So Jack got down from the kayak and tried to talk to their child. When he tried to speak, And when he tried to say something from the bible, some of the sentinel tribes there, took his kayak without his knowledge. In the next few minutes, That child aimed at Jack’s chest with it’s bow and arrow. And after that it shoots him. But luckily the arrow hit the bible and the bible fell down and Jack survived.

Now again, Jack was scared and tried to escape. But when he looked back the kayak was not there. But since he knows swimming very well, somehow he escaped and swims to the boat. That night, he wrote something on his diary. He writes like this:

“Oh god. Is this island possessed by the devils? Is this that devil’s last fort? Is the people here are too much possessed by the devils that they don’t even want to hear God’s name?” He wrote like this and said that, “I want to go there again. But god, I don’t want to die. But I’ll definitely go there.”

And since Jack was too much devoted to god and too blindfolded, it made him to decide like a crazy man. So, Jack must definitely go to the Island now. He convinced himself that it was his birth reason.

NOVEMBER 16, 2018

Jack wrote a letter to his family on November 16, 2018. He told in the letter: “You may think me as crazy. But I have to declare to them who Jesus was. Suppose if they murdered me, don’t get mad on them or god.” He also added some more. Now he again went to the Island in that boat.

He asked to stop the boat a little away from the island, and started to swim to the island. Then he never came back. The local fisherman, who brought him there, since he didn’t return back, searched for him by waiting in a safer distance. Then he was shocked to see that the Sentinel people was burying him in the shore. He confirmed that it was Jack’s body by looking at his shirt.

05^TH OCTOBER 2022

SAKTHI RIVER RESORTS, AMBARAMPALAYAM

11:35 AM

“So who are these people in the Island? Where did they come from? Why are they doing like this? Why they are not aware of the outside world? What did the Indian Government did after that? Did anyone tried to contact them before? Then what happened to them? We are going to decode a lot of details briefly.” Sam Dev Mohan said to his friends Dinesh, Aariyaan, Harshini and Rohan at present period of time. Since, they were eager to hear about the North Sentinel Island.

2018

NORTH SENTINEL ISLAND

North Sentinel Island. North Sentinel Island is a part of Andaman and Nicobar Island. There are 572 islands in total. In that only 38 are inhabitant. And only 12 are opened for tourist. Tourist can go and visit there. It was totally divided into three districts. North, Middle and South Andaman and Nicobar. It’s capital is Port Blair which is located at the South Andaman. Exactly there is only 50 km distance between the capital and the North Sentinel Island.

The North Sentinel Island has totally 60 sq kms area. But was surrounded by a thick forest. The people who are living here is called as North Sentinelese. But this name was kept by us. That means, what is their name? We don’t know how they will call them.

PRESENT

At present, Dinesh and Rohan were enthralled upon hearing the mystery of North Sentinel Island. While Aariyaan, who was completely engrossed with Sam’s narration asked him to tell about the origin and history of North Sentinel Island, to which he agrees.

70000 YEARS BACK

Nearly, 70000 years before, it was believed that they was migrated from Africa. It was an out of Africa theory. According to that theory, they were the modern humans of their time. They are the one who was living in the North Sentinels now.

From East Africa they first went to Yemen. After that they travelled through India and went to Myanmar. They travelled through lot of islands like South East Asia, East Asia and more and finally they came to Australia. When they were settled like that, Middle East India, South East people and others were connected.

But the people in the remote area, started to live from being isolated from other people of the world. Likewise, the people who settled in the North Sentinels, came there before 10,000 to 30,000 years ago. After that, they lost their contact with the outer world. That means, the people there doesn’t know about agriculture. Because, agriculture was found only 12,000 years ago. And maybe they doesn’t need agriculture to survive.

And maybe that’s why they doesn’t know about agriculture. Everyone there was stone age. They are living as a stone age people till now. That is, they are living their lives by hunting. They are living by hunting animals, eating fruits from trees and catching fish. They are the most isolated tribes in the world.

They also wished to live in isolation. Because, whenever they were tried to be contacted, and whenever the contact was established, they did only one thing. That is they attacked very violently.

A.D. 2^ND CENTURY

If we look through histories, and if we see what is the oldest handwritten record about the Andaman and Nicobar Island, In A.D, 2^nd Century. Mathematician Claudius Ptolemy from Rome, said: “Andaman and Nicobar Islands are the islands where cannibals live.” Many of you had known about Cannibals.

Cannibalism is nothing but a species that eats the flesh of it’s own kind. He described that the people in that island eats human flesh. But he didn’t say about only the North Sentinel island. He said about the whole Andaman and Nicobar Island. So we doesn’t know that which island he exactly mentioned.

673 AD

In 673 A.D. A Chinese traveller came from Sumatra to India, and when he came across Andaman Island, he said everyone there was cannibals. After that in A.D 8 and A.D 9, those who came from Arab Countries also said the same.

They were black and they eat raw human flesh. Their feet was big and also said that they were naked. If you hear what I say now, you’ll get Goosebumps. In Thanjavur big temple, carvings were found about the North Sentinel Island.

A.D 11

In A.D 11, most of the Andaman Islands was under the rule of Raja Raja Cholan. In both Thanjavur and Malaysian stone carvings, they mentioned the parts of Andaman Island as Nakkavaram. Nakkam means naked. Since the people there was naked, they kept the names like that.

But then, North Sentinel Island was named as Evil island. From the name itself you can get it, the people there was mentioned as monsters. Nicobar Island was called as Car Lamp and Naga’s Lamp. Chola’s war ships and trade ships was frequently coming to the Andaman and Nicobar Island. Likewise, when Raja Raja Chola was travelling to Malaysia, it is mentioned that he took rest on one of those part of Island. After it is said that, these North Sentinel people will only obey the orders of Raja Raja Cholan. Because Raja Raja Cholan had these North Sentinel people under his control.

But we don’t have the exact proof to believe that. The first specific written record was recently mentioned in 1771. When the East Indian company ship came across that Island, they said that the Island was tremendously bright.

And in 1867, A Indian trade ship with 100 people, was caught in an unexpected accident and went to the shore of that island. Those who were survived from that accident, was attacked by the North Sentinel people. But luckily saved by the British Indian Navy. Sentinel people attacked and chased the people who came to their island and it was the first official case which was mentioned.

After that in 1880, A British officer named Maurice Vidal Portman, tried to contact and civilize the Sentinel people. Because, in that time, he made successful contact with other tribes in Andaman and had a friendly communication with them. Now what port man said is, when he went to the North Sentinel Island, he took other island tribes with him.

Because only then the North Sentinel people can make a good contact with other tribes and he thought he can also communicate well and took them there. But when he went there, he came to know that, “The north Sentinel people spoke is totally different from the other Island tribes. So they couldn’t communicate properly.” Now Portman saw two old couples and 4 children standing in the shore of North Sentinel Island.

Immediately he decided to kidnap them and took them to Andaman Port Blair. Then only he came to know that, the people in the North Sentinel Island was isolated from this world and other people for long time. Why because, The old couple from the North Sentinel died in 2 days when they were brought to Port Blair. Now Portman was worried about the 4 children and decided to leave them in the North Sentinel Island. So he gave them some gifts and left them in that island.

Now, definitely the bacteria from the outer world, a lot of viruses which was not known in the island, was brought by those kids unexpectedly to that island. So there is a chance of lot of people may affected and died there. Why because, all these disease, which comes in a modern base, our body had created immunity against that. Since we are experiencing these kind of disease for a long time, our body has adapted accordingly to that.

PRESENT

1:15 PM

“But the North Sentinel people was isolated from the other people for thousands of years. And they were isolated from the different kinds of disease too. So their body might not have produced any immunity against that. That’s why the old couple died when they came out of there.” Wearing his power glasses, Sam Dev Mohan concluded his narration about North Sentinel Islands to his friends.

Although Dinesh and Rohan found this to be an ordinary topic, Harshini felt amused and gripped upon hearing the Mystery of North Sentinel Island.

“So only after the Portman kidnapped these North Sentinel people. Am I right, Sam?” asked Aariyaan, to which Sam Dev Mohan looked at the birds and smooth flow of Azhiyar river for a few seconds. He then replied her: “It’s still mystical da buddy. Just like the origin of our smooth-flowing rivers-Bharathapuzha and Mahanadi.” Pausing a while, he continued: “It’s believed that they started to behave violently like this. They thought that they should be isolated forever.”

Harshini scratched her heads in confusion. So, Sam clarified her by telling: I said in intro about Jack Christ. He went to that Island on 2018. Do you remember?” She nods her head.

“Before he died there, the question for whether no one had tried to contact them is. Yes, they had. In 1974, they had recorded it as a video documentary. It was the first time, that North Sentinel people were recorded in a camera.”

“How’s that even possible? I just can’t believe it, man!” said Rohan.

“An anthropologist from India named Triloknath Pandit, went to the North Sentinel Island with the armed forces. That’s when the world came to know that how they have been there.”

Now too many questions were running in the minds of Adhithya’s friends, who came to attend the reunion party happily.

“Now, the North Sentinel Island was under the control of whom?” asked Dinesh and the friends of Adhithya, who were listening his narration. 

“What does the North Sentinelese doing now? What happened when Triloknath Pandit went there?” asked Praveen and Thalapathi Ram. Aariyaan too asked the same to Sam.

But to everyone’s surprise, Sam Dev Mohan smiled at them. He said: “Let’s see those events in part 2 da. Because, it’s already time for us to have the lunch.”

TO BE CONTINUED…