At the Ootea festival

I had never heard of the Ootea festival before – and from the looks of it, neither had many of the participants. We were walking out of the railway station after inquiring about the timings of the heritage train when we spotted these costumed kids waiting in long lines, restless as only kids can be. Turned out they had no idea what was happening – “some rally”, one of the finally ventured.

The Ootea festival is an annual affair that celebrates Tea and Tourism in the Nilgiris. We stood by the road watching the pageant – school children, Tibetan women, folk dancers and musicians, music bands, a miniature heritage train, and a flower garden, among other things.

What about you? Do you know anything more about this festival? I hope the Tourism Department makes a louder noise about it from now – and make it an event people want to attend, rather than discover by chance.

The road to Ooty

Almost as lovely as being in Ooty itself is the drive there from Bangalore. The route goes through the forests of Bandipur and Mudumalai and then briefly past Masinagudi before the climb up the Nilgiris.

Plastic is banned through most of this route – you tell me, is there a way to ban those morons who honk and shout and smoke through the beauty of it all, enough even to make the elephants turn back on their path?

And the final stretch up the hills, with its thirty six hair-pin curves and stunning views miles across the distance…

Next stop now – Bandipur and Masinagudi…

St. Stephen’s church at Ooty

One of my quick halts at Ooty was at St. Stephen’s Church on the way to Charing Cross. I had been keen to visit the church ever since I had seen photographs of its lovely stained glass windows.

The church was almost empty but for a solitary worshiper on the last pew. The late morning light streamed in through the stained glass windows, making the colours come alive.

Here is some history: the foundation stone for the church was laid in April 1829 and it was opened for service two years later in 1931. The cemetery by its side holds the grave of many of Nilgiris’ Britishers, including John Sullivan, the founding father of Ooty town.

Chug-chugging from Ooty to Coonoor

Crossing off one more item from my ‘must do sometime’ list: taking the toy train from Ooty. Ideally, I would have loved to travel in the heritage train from Ooty all the way down to Mettupalayam but there was just not enough time. And so, the short one-hour ride to Coonoor, just for the experience.

A day before I left for Ooty, I came across Sankara’s post on the train. and so I landed up at the station well in advance of the counter opening and managed to be well ahead in the queue.

It was the day of Saraswati Puja (or Ayudha Puja) and the entire station wore a festive look – banana leaves, marigold, camphor, sweets… The counter opened at 11.30 a.m. for the 12.15 p.m. train. And we managed to get first class tickets. Now, these tickets to Coonoor cost Rs.76 each while general tickets are Rs.3 and I hear everyone say that the price difference is not worth it; in first class, you get allotted seats and do not have to rush to get into the train and fight for seats!

And so, the train left Ooty on the dot and made its way slowly down to Coonoor, stopping on the way briefly at Lovedale and Ketti before a longer halt at Aravankadu to give way to the incoming train – it is a single track all the way through.

And so, we hopped off the train at Aravankadu for pictures and piping hot vadas. The train stopped here for over ten minutes before it resumed chugging again slowly towards Wellington.

The route is picturesque all through, with the deep valley on one side and bright, colourful flowering bushes running along the tracks on the other. The run from Ketti to Aravankadu is particularly scenic, especially since it was a bright day with cheerful sunshine.

At Coonoor, the train emptied and many passengers found, to their dismay, that the train back to Ooty was over three hours later (4.30 p.m). We made our way out into Coonoor without a plan in mind – the area around the railway station is crowded and depressing and so after a quick lunch at the first available eatery, we took a cab back to Ooty.

We had anyway taken the train only for joy of the ride…