Memoirs from Udhagamandalam (Ooty)

Ooty, what can I say... heard so much about it, lived so close to it for years, thought it to be overly commercialized, hence never visited it! Never realized till my recent visit that the "Queen of hill Stations", as it is fondly called, would leave so many lasting memories with me that I would be visiting again... and again... and again!

 

The monsoon of July was threatening to keep us indoors when we started the trip on a Sunday morning. We had heard that the incessant drizzle in Ooty gets really annoying to most and we were mentally prepared to relax, stay indoors and enjoy tea beside a fire-place. With such minimal expectations and an open mind to explore what is there to offer, we set sail early from Bangalore and reached Udhagai at around an hour past noon. The 6 hours drive, with a breakfast break, was adorned by lovely weather, smooth roads, minimal traffic, bright green forests and inviting calls from the wild.

 



The Town below

The first view of the town simply puts to rest any stress and burden you carry from your daily being. The cool and gentle breeze makes you close your eyes and take a sense of life when it comes to a standstill. The towering trees swaying and whistling to the valley winds makes you feel so small and inappropriate in the vast worldly space. The never ending winding roads and ever surprising hair-pin bends does need more than your normal attention span, but the greens beside the tar gives you a sense of peace with the roads, which one normally does not get in the city roads. 

The Cafe at Lymond house

As we stepped into our abode for the next 4 days, we realized that this colonial bungalow really takes you way back in time to the early 19th century. The Victorian architecture is prominent across the exterior and is far more pronounced in the interiors. The sprawling lawn with a wide range of flowering plants lining the garden is simply breathtaking. One could find so much peace in gardening and spending time with the greens all around the property. In fact one of the posters on the walls of the property reads...

"Gardening man's primeval work, Is a most blessed toil. It cheers a man, makes him kind hearted, social, genial, forms a serene parenthesis from care, and his whole nature rises and improves." Well, I could not have said it better, but the place makes you believe in every word. The wrought iron antique styled outdoor sit-outs were so conveniently placed that it seemed odd for us to sit there and spoil the perfect blend with nature. A traditional silk sari weaver once said that if you need inspiration from nature, look at the colors and contrasts that it has to offer and boy was the garden full of inspiration for the next few hundred years.

The first step inside leaved you with so much warmth and sense of belonging. The lighting, numerous antique vase placed across the room, the rust colored fire-place and the old school seating makes you feel that you are home. Bone china artifacts from the 18th century, paintings from the yesteryears and collectibles from the British Raj keep the place busy with your eyes sure to catch something new every morning. All that one needs from here on is the English dressing and an evening cup of fresh tea by the lamp reading your favorite novel.

The 19th century piano although a bit rusty and out of tune, still did bring out the haunting memories of English nights from this hill station. It is said that during the 19th century many British died very young at Ooty for the want of essential medical supplies and this fact is preserved in some of the graveyards across town. The ability to maintain and bring to life such antique art is visible across the property and all credit goes out to the team in doing a wonderful job at it. Restoration is a painful and dying art and is being done by 2nd or 3rd generation families who are visible as shadows across this town full of recent commercial boom.

The chill 10 degree July monsoon evening does get a reprieve with the fire place spreading enough warmth across the bungalow. It is funny how one gets so much pleasure in doing nothing, sitting around the fireplace, breathing in the smokey aroma and sipping the world famous niligiri tea. All the worldly discomfort is forgotten and attaining inner peace comes naturally. To make the evening even more blissful, and in pure English style, a crystal full of fine English single malt does complete the picture.

The well appointed room with blissful lighting does make one want to feel the warmth of the rug ever so more. The wooden flooring and the sound of creeks and cracks every time you walk on them, takes you back to a bygone era so lost in time, you ever wonder why times changed at all. Reminiscing the frames across the room makes you a part of the life in the 19th century and speaks of untold tales of families trying to make a living in such harsh conditions. Luxury today is earned after centuries of toil by those who left a mark for us to cherishFor me it all started with a single yellow flower! Our journey in a train 14 years ago, bollywood styled as it would seem, kicked off with wild yellow flowers. Ironically though, this trip to Ooty is the second time only that we have travelled in a train after we met. That also means loads of memories rekindled along with a short train-trip to remember for life. With no agenda in mind for the trip to Ooty, since we were anyway anticipating a downpour of sorts, we decided to take the day as it comes. The day we landed, we visited the much acclaimed "Mohans - Antique and furniture store". Demonstrating our motto of "living life to the fullest", we ended up shopping for some fine antique collectables and furniture to match our taste. Devilishly, we also lined up a few items for our next visit.

 

A first day well spent, all we longed for good dinner and sound sleep, which we were guaranteed to get at the bungalow. Waking up the next day with no agenda and as we walked up to the breakfast table, I noticed a small chart giving details of the Nilgiri Mountain express. The history and clinical details of this train has been written world over so I intend to skip the finer points and get to the interesting bits. For starters, this was my second train journey with my better half and has strong memories attached. Secondly, the train we were to take was a "Toy-Train" and by all means covers some of the most scenic routes of the Nilgiris. These 2 points were more than enough for us to pack ourselves with heavy breakfast and run to the train station

One of the best parts of travelling to an otherwise highly commercialized tourist spot on a weekday and in off season, is to witness something spectacular, an empty railway station! With no more than 10 visitors in the stations, including us, the number of railway employee's seemed to be a lot. A 30 min wait to pick up first class tickets and an empty station meant that I had all the time to connect up with a few locals and soak in some history. With a handful of people on the platform of the small station, and my keen eye for books, it was a no brainer that i would head to the beaming book stall.

 

A well stocked Higginbotham’s stall would never disappoint any traveler, and this stall too was remarkably stocked with some serious collections from across the globe. The store keeper, Balasubramani (fondly referred to as Mani), has been manning this stall since 28 years. His passion towards his work is still so visible in his animated conversations with even a handful of customers (as seen on the extreme left in the photo). He speaks about his sons photos being published in a recent print edition of National Geographic with so much pride. There is a sense of personal touch in every interaction he has with strangers on the platform. Such compassion is seldom felt even at the place we work and greet back in our mundane lives.

Mani maintains a visitor book which has the first entry dated back to 1989. Boy was it fun reading some of the entries with him. The brief conversation with Mani struck such a chord that he led us to some of the best seats in the train, which was right behind the guard, with a near 300 degree viewing angle. Seats occupied, customary photographs taken and greetings exchanged with Mani, we waited for the first chugs of the steam engine. The five carriage train was so small that it had only 184 seats in total. I do hear stories of people standing during the peak season to experience this piece of history.

The mysterious and magical, yet ever so functional mechanical marvel, the steam engine, chugged in to take us through this dream ride. With all flags waving green, we were up for an experience of a lifetime in the 75 min journey. The slow pace of the train, traversing through a century old route, winding across the hill sides, peeking through a few tunnels and swaying gently to the breeze is truly like living a dream. I did think it was a tad childish, but the experience is such that it takes you back to your sub-conscious childhood, where you tend to get so absorbed in your dream, that it takes time to wake up and figure out the real from the magical.

 

A visit to a tea factory, the near two century old St. Stephens Church and the bustling old market was just the icing on the cake. Tasting chocolate tea by the road side and relishing the famous Ooty Varkey left us craving for more from this wonderful get-away. With another world renowned tourist spot checked from my list of places to visit, Ooty would surely be one of my top spots to visit again, many a times in the future. Well, only till another new destination takes my breath away....!