A hot weekend at Ooty

Last weekend, I was travelling to Ooty. Every time I set off for ooty, a nice and warm feeling would set in even before a day of the start. This time was no different, though I was bit wary about the holiday crowd. As you enter the ghat section just before 'Kallar' after 'Mettupalayam', your mind sets in a nice mood and you start to enjoy the drive. The curves and the hairpins add to the joy of travelling. As your vehicle enters 'Barliar' you would crave for a hot tea, just to toast up the chill weather. Not to mention, Barliar is full tea shops. It's about there and thereabouts that the Nilagiri district boundary begins. I used to wonder about the sudden chillness in the air as we curve in to the Nilagiri district though the difference in the height between the previous sharp curve and the one leading into Baraliyar is not much.

Travelling to Ooty has always been enjoyable but for the last one. It was horrible because it was hot. I was running around 'Barliar', during our brief halt, to get some 'Nimbooz' and cool water bottles for my family. I thought to myself, may be it's only in Barliar, just to be proved wrong by Coonoor. I was sweating and needed a table under a ceiling fan to have my lunch. Mood, what mood? Joy, what joy? We stayed overnight at my uncle's house in 'Aruvankadu'. Ventured out late in the evening and enjoyed the fresh air in the darkness surrounded by trees inside the cordite factory campus. Had a good walk, heavily breathing in before adjusting to the altitude and the slopeness of the roads. It was the only good and enjoyable moment of my day.

Next day we proceeded to Ooty and was halted all along the way by heavy traffic. We reached Ooty and proceeded further to Glenmorgan, which thankfully is not a popular touring spot. We travelled on the Ooty -Gudalur Road and took a diversion near the heavily crowded 'Shooting Medu' (A point from where people can reach many film shooting spots). I climbed up the Shooting Medu, which was bereft of its lush green and was full of brown spots. From that spot within a KM a slight diversion to the right at a corner took us to beautiful Glenmorgan. Our vehicle was the only one travelling on that road and there was one even at the spot. We spent around an hour near a small dam enroute and an hour at Glenmorgan TNEB site where there is a breathtaking view point of a vast and deep Valley with mountains all around. The view point is located near a TNEB Winch (the famous winch that took part in the movie 'Mullum Malarum'). People have told me that when you climb down in the winch, at one point it will be Kerala on one side and Karntaka on the other side while you are in TN. That view is supposedly a great one, which unfortunately is not accessible currently as the Winch is halted for safety reasons. If you are a braveheart you can then climb down the steep stairs alongside the winch path. I saw a couple climbing up the stairs, panting heavily. The husband remarked, "theriyama irangitenga" (we climbed down ignorantly).

When we returned to Ooty in the afternoon it was again hot and when we reached the over crowded and in terrible shape Botanical Garden, we were scurrying for shades to sit under. That's how hot it was. It's not the Ooty I knew, experienced and loved. I am still in love with Ooty and would take my bike to there some time in June/July just to compensate for this terrible experience. But one thing is for sure. Summer visits to Ooty will not cool you down, be it in mind or body. It is sure to make you feel terrible especially during the weekends. People are thronging in lakhs and that's not good for Ooty. At least I don't want to add up to that figure.

A glaring sight in Ooty, the city, is the reduced amount of greenery and the growing sight of concrete buildings with neon lights, and flashy boards aimed at tourists, promising a great stay (these guys must be sarcastic). Unless we learn to love and nurture our environment and learn to protect the beauty of this land, we will invite more and more natural disasters like the one that crippled Ooty in October - November 2009, when landslides engulfed Nilagiri District. People will blame everyone else except themselves.