Indian Ocean Trade | rama toshi arya's blog

Welcome to my series on island-hopping in the Indian Ocean. Through 72-hour visual itineraries I hope to take the traveller in you under the islands’ skin. So, why this theme? I asked myself the same question. I live in Goa at walking distance from the beach. And a beach is a beach?

Wrong. 🙂 Every beach is different. And there is a whole world in an island, beyond its beaches. Or so I believe.

I am starting the series with Mauritius and Seychelles which I visited last month, and will be adding to the collection as I travel to more. In August, the temperature and humidity are mild in this corner of the world, and the waters very choppy. Compared to December when the reverse takes place, I figured it was easier for me to handle an odyssey.

A tiny pear-shaped dot in the Indian Ocean, 805 kilometres east of Madagascar, Mauritius owes its existence to volcanic activity eight million years ago. Okay, not exactly tiny. Mauritius spans 1,865 sq. kilometres. Continue reading →

In respect to all, please know that these are historical photos, showing pictures, telling stories about those who are no longer with us.
I also acknowledge we are on Rann/ Forbidden Kingdom/ Wangai land; I take this opportunity to acknowledge all Elders, past and present.
Everyday everything goes back to the earth.

*The permission to narrate this story is given to me by the Family & Land.

~ Archana Hande

Archana Hande’s exhibition ‘I am a Landscape Painter’ is the story of Abdul Suthar, part true, part imagined. A Kutchch Muslim, Abdul leaves India, together with his camels, through the port of Kolkatta [Calcutta] for Australia. What he could have been, based on the choices that came his way, to where he eventually finds himself, deep in the 19th Century Goldfields trail, is recounted in Hande’s art through the landscapes he traversed. Continue reading →