The Fortnightly Update

Hello readers,
Hope you all had a lovely april. Summer has descended on Bengaluru, loudly. Our writers are wandering about the hill stations, hoping the height gives them some bright ideas. Its holidays, anyway.Even the birds are packing their suitcases and taking a vacation. Well, with IPL and the elections, the summer is bound to be action packed and entertaining.
At wink, we bring you our regular columns - Wine, Dine and Dance - where our writer finds inspiration at a tea stall, Wanderlust - a trip into Ooty, and Funny Side Up - which goes musical this time.
Happy Reading!

Wanderlust - Ooty

Its just the place to go to when march begins. Ooty is the queen of the Nilgiris. And one can reach it from the Mysore or from Coimbature route. The bus that goes up to the hill from Coimbature is one of the slowest. It shall beep, bleep and cough, sneeze and make its way up. But its a beautiful ride, I realized, whenever that I managed to wake up and watch the scenery. Ooty was cold, take enough woolen clothing. A part of Ooty is very English, the club, the derby, the schools. I think you'll meet Charring Cross – an important land mark. Walk around the bazaar – for interesting food and yummy chocolates (which is “home made”. Whose Home, I wonder) and some local stories and lots of tea. Ooty is filled with tea, so much – that a regular tea drinker will switch to coffee after two days there, out of sheer excess. The regular things to see around Ooty are the Doddabetta peak (you have to climb this one! It's also the highest peak in south India and the confluence of the eastern and western ghats. And several confused people will try to show you the karnataka - TN borders from atop the place. Trust me, you will be confused, at the end of it) You'll see tea plantations all around, not to mention eucalyptus and a lot of pretty birds in many different colors . Its an experience, Dodda Betta. You'll have to see the botanical garden, the rose garden, the Ooty Lake if you are in Ooty. Also have a look at the Thread Garden. Ah, and mind you, you have to pay for the camera everywhere. A to-do is to take the Ooty-Mettupalayam heritage train. Its a little crowded (ok, ok, Very crowded), but worth the effort. There is lots of Nilgiris to see around Ooty – Conoor, Kotagiri and much much more. The native tribes are still an integral part of the NilGiris - the Todas and Kurumbas. Ah, talk about the High and Mighty - Ooty is definitely that.

Funny Side Up - A song and a story

At a recent classical concert that I went to, something interesting happened. It turned into a drama. And a musical one, at that. You should not expect too much activity at concerts, they are for the cultivation of the soul. The only movement is that of the sound waves causing wave-motion and reaching the pinna. The tranquility of the place was slightly altered by a little kid who ran upto the singing musician, yelling “thatha” loudly. The musician, probably embarrassed to be addressed as an old man, gave the kid a very “not-now-later” smile and proceeded to concentrate on his Bhairavi varanam (Well, I generally associate closing of the eyes as that in concerts). A frantic mother, calling out “Poonam” runs up to the stage to hold the child back and prevent its ascent to the podium. The musician was further annoyed with the proper noun being said aloud. He frantically signals the kid and its caretaker to take a seat somewhere. The kid bellows. The grand father-turned-musician or vice-versa takes note (his musical notes are ignored). Enter: kid's dad. He now takes charge of the situation. He carries the kid out for a walk around the open-air auditorium. More tantrums, more yelling, more notes going wrong. It was fun to watch. I, who was sitting with my eyes closed, all prepared for some intense Bhairavi, got up and took note. And then, I realised to my surprise, everyone was interestedly watching. The gentleman seated beside me even adjusted his glasses. I adjusted mine too. Too bad I did not take my hearing aid along.

Wine, Dine and Dance - Shruthi Stall!

My recent trip to Ootacamund and Conoor has left me with very little to say about the outside world. So, this handicap allows me to tell you about this tiny stall about 5kms from Dolphin’s nose in Conoor. If you have a vehicle of your own, the entire journey will be a 1-hour ordeal. You take the road that forks from the Sim’s park and at every step there will be a board guiding you through. We, on the other hand, decided to walk up. We were staying at the Blue Hills hotel in Conoor and it was about 16kms from there. The local authorities told us that there would be a bus at 6:45am, which we happened to miss. We assumed that the next bus that was 3 hours hence would pick us up on the way if we politely waved out. Alas!

Lesson learnt: Buses in Conoor DON’T stop! They just don’t!

We walked up. Tea everywhere, and not a drop to drink. After about 10kms we saw the Shruthi stall materializing amidst the mist. It was a tiny place that made tea and sold Tea, wholesale. The owner was there too at that time. We stood outside the stall looking down the hills. We were given binocular to aid vision. T’wasn’t must of a help, I should confess. After about 15 minutes of squinting, we realized that we were in desperate need of something hot to drink. We were invited cordially and asked for our choices in Tea. There was masala chai, earl green tea, lemon tea, chocolate tea, orange pekoe and what-not! We all made our pick and sipped on it, while the owner tried to sell some packets of it to us. We also got to know that the tea estate around the stall was owned by Mumtaz, the actress, who sadly, is dead. He also showed us an estate that belonged to a great Tamil actor, whose name I cannot recollect. But the tea definitely helped in the process of rejuvenation and we left to complete the next 6kms of the journey.

Shruthi stall – tea for one and all….