Lake Tahoe ( north )

KARAN the Gr8

My Visit to 'ALCATRAZ' in San Francisco

I had read about the dreadful prison also called the "ROCKS" by the Americans,in the few novels i had come across.It was indeed a place from where,one can only dream of a escape,but perhaps can never make it come true.

The visit involved a Cruz 20 minutes across the cold waters of the Pacific.It is about 7 miles from the San Francisco bay and perhaps one would imagine why would it be so difficult to attempt an escape.

Yes, once an inmate is desperate and has nothing to loose as a matter of fact in the ultimate,his will power shall be at the peak and plans to make an exit from the ROCKS is inevitable; no matter what the consequences are.

The 'ROCKS' as the prison is named is really a forbidden place, perhaps as bad as the "Cellular Jail" in the Andaman also named as "Kala Pani" by the Indians, where most of the freedom fighters were jailed by the Britishers.No one could ever make a successful escape from either place.

The place is now preserved as a monument for tourists.The whole tour to the Alcatraz was well scheduled and conducted by the organisers.We were given a brief to recall the history of the place.As we landed in the Island we had the choice of seeing a movie which depicted the complete arena and of course a pictorial view of those dreaded cells with absolutely no scope for an escape, from the dungeon.

All the tourists had fair idea of how to go about the tour of the place after the exciting documentary.We were given an auto-audio play with facility to hold and forward as we we took a walk along the dormitory,dining hall, library,central control room and the various corridors, the most dreaded and dangerous inmates spent their term.

It was not that inmates didn't make plans for an escapade, but unfortunately for them, none of them could make it without being shot or if caught, put in the dark room for a fortnight, from where, you don't get to see the daylight.

The prisoners were given all facilities to exercise,read books in the library and ate the same food as was eaten by the prison wards.

The complete tour took about three hours and at the end was worth the 25$ charged.