Amazing Amazon

Its truly amazing how Amazon has managed to spread its tentacles across India. For us in the city, its so easy-peasy to order online; there is no logistical nightmare to that extent. But imagine delivering a package to the remotest corner of India – the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

To get to Havelock islands, the Amazon package travels through air, road and water. The trip begins, like any other Amazon delivery, from inside a cavernous warehouse, where the item is picked up and transported by road and then by air to Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It travels by truck to a small, two-room Amazon sorting centre, where it is carefully separated out and bundled into a large white delivery bag. Then, at a roadside wharf at the other end of Port Blair, the bag, stuffed with parcels destined for the island, is carried onto a small, wooden fishing boat.

The boat, open to the elements and powered by a noisy, ancient engine, travels 70 km in five hours across the Andaman Sea. On a beach at Havelock Island, home to less than 20,000 people, the Amazon bag is unloaded, its contents sorted at a small office, and the parcel is finally taken by scooter to the various homes.

Before Amazon arrived on tiny Havelock, it could take weeks or even months to get hold of something from the mainland, and usually at double the price. Most e-commerce sites would deliver only up till Port Blair, an hour and a half away by the fastest ferry.

Clearly, Amazon has changed life for many of us; it has become a part of our life now!