“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present”- Jim Rohn

This statement from Jim Rohn makes perfect sense, as far as our trip to St. Mary’s island is concerned. It was a long pending dream since college days to visit this island, which are a set of four small islands in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Malpe in Udupi. And wanted to live this dream when we visited India in May 2010. As usual, as working people we could not get more than 3 weeks of vacation. And to escape from obligatory visits to relatives, we planned a trip to Kerala with parents. After the Kerala trip, there was a family get together and few obligatory visits to close relatives. Whole schedule was already fixed. And my Dentist cousin dropped a seed of dream in my mind by explaining their trip to St. Mary’s island and that it is a must. So, I started proposing the idea before our Kerala trip, in spite of knowing I will not get any support. I received suggestions that December is the right time to visit the islands as it won’t be too hot.

I kept quite till we fulfilled all my commitments with family function & visits to relatives. That was our last day at our native. We were at Udupi and were supposed to travel to Tirthahalli and at night travel back to Bangalore to catch the flight. In the morning, spoke to my cousin who gave me contact details of the private boat service providers who had taken them to St.Mary’s island. Spoke to that person and fixed up the appointment at 10am and went to explore our luck. There is also ferry service from Malpe beach which is generally crowded(no ferry service during Monsoon months).

we were supposed to wait near this hut.There came 2 young people with red T-shifts, gave us Safety jackets and prepared the small boat for us.By the time we reached the island, my camera bag was half wet. Luckily Camera was intact. I had thought of taking pictures while going in the boat, but it was so bumpy and with each bump we were getting showered, forget about taking out camera out, holding ourselves straight in the boat itself was difficult. At times was thinking, “was it a good decision? Will my camera survive this?”.

This island is also known as coconut island or Thonsepar. As we were the first to visit the island on that day, there was nobody else other than we 2 and 2 boat guys. Though I had not felt a single thought of fear at that time, if I think about it now it feel bit strange.  It was very hot and we could not stay there for long. While we walked around in the island taking pictures, the boat guys had collected sea shells for us in am empty plastic bottle which tourists had left there.This was one of the beaches where sea shells were covering the shore more than the sand. The polygonal Basalt rock formations were also interesting. The archeology connects it back to the time when India was attached Madagascar.

We enjoyed the breathtaking beauty of the island in just 1 hour and returned back to Udupi to continue our journey back to Bangalore.  I quoted “Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present- Jim Rohn“, as after 2010, we never went to India in December which is supposed to be right time to visit these islands. July-August when we visit India is the monsoon season and I don’t think anybody would be ready to take us there during that time. So, when I look back, the decision to live that dream at that moment seems so right, even though the visit was too short and could have been little longer, with few more dear ones around.