Things That Bang

There are places one can frequent more than once and still be enchanted by what those regions have to offer. My love for the Niligiris, or Neelghiris as it was known during the colonial times, endures. Last Friday early morning we drove to Ootacamund and stopped for breakfast at the famous Kamat restaurant for Banana leaf covered idilies and chow chow bath. After a filling breakfast we drove through Mysore, Bandipur, Madhumalai and by lunch time found ourselves driving on the 36 Hairpin bends that took us up the gentle hills of Nilgiris to Ootacamund.

Much of Ooty remained the same except it was greener, less tourists, prone to drizzling and extremely cold. We dropped our bags at the club and headed out of lunch. Much to our disappointment the Holiday Inn wasn't serving outsiders since they had some sort of massive family 'convention' going on with a loud man accosting a hired girl half his size to put the biggest garland on the head honcho of the family and ten girls shrieking their delight ten paces away from us. We beat a hasty retreat to land up at Mithun Da's famous Monarch and were again disappointed. The place held the smell and look of the socialist era. Mammoth in size, it wore a deserted look as if it was already hit by the swine flu pandemic. We waited around for a few minutes and headed back into the town to have Chinese food at the famous Shinkow restaurant. Kids loved the food since it was bland and salt less. Aaman and I were disappointed. Nostalgia sometimes tastes like saw dust. After a short siesta back in the club we headed back into the city and checked out Mohan's Rose and Teak furniture shop. Mohan's Rose and Teak shop has furniture which is way cheaper than the stuff available in Bangalore and they are very honest about the material their furniture and figurines are made of. Most of their furniture is made of Teak or Rose wood and are very honest in their transactions. We also visited the main shop where we bought some regular stuff and then headed towards Coffee Day next to Modern store where the service was at its lowest levels. But since we were in congenial mood none of us protested. Next we headed towards St Stephen's church opposite Mohan's. The Reverend of the church was kind enough to give us a tour of the church. The church was consecrated on 1829 and despite its beautiful homely ambiance I felt immense sadness at the church. The Reverend was kind enough to take us to his back office where he apprised us of the church's history and told us that the survival rate of the British who came to Ooty was quite low at the time. The cemetery behind the church had graves dating back to the 1800 and most as usual most graves were of young soldiers, wives and even babies. The price of colonial rule was paid by the British by their young.

It was close to dusk and the weather became exceedingly cold and after thanking the Reverend for his warm welcome we headed back to the Club for dinner. On Saturday we visited the Botanical garden which was breathtaking. They had little nooks and crannies with gorgeous flowers and exotic trees from all over the world. The sales counter however turned out to be a disappointment since they had put all their flowers in the glass house for exhibition. I couldn't take my eyes of the hydrangeas that grew effortlessly in the garden whereas the ones I own back in Bangalore barely manage to spring no more than one mophead in a year. There also seemed to be some sort of a begonia craze as most of the flowers showcased in different glass houses were begonias and other plants were the mundane variety. Later on, we drove to Coonoor to have lunch at the Taj. Though the hotel was gorgeous and the buffet was good but the service was lax. Plates were left on our tables and the head waiter sniffled and coughed much to the alarm of the customers. Coonoor, we decided, was a place to relax without kids since the town didn't offer much in terms of kiddie entertainment. We drove back to Ooty on the narrow road and most of the times found ourselves crawling behind some slow truck or a bus. But the passing scenery made up for the aggravation. By the time we reached back it was pretty late and we relaxed at the hotel. Aaman and I nursed our drinks at the bar while the kids watched cartoons in the television room. Dinner was served at nine after which we headed back to our cottage and dozed off by ten. Our drive back towards Bangalore was comfortable and enjoyable. The roads were mostly smooth and the North Karnataka lunch with jowar rotis and brinjal at Kamat delicious. We reached home within five hours and did not feel tired thanks to the smooth drive on the NICE road (We spotted Kheny directing operations to complete the remaining stretches).