TFN a small dream now Big Movement

Tour oF Nilgiris beckoning

A group of enthusiasts in Bangalore conceived a tour to Nilgiris in Bike, after thrashing out,  bouncing ideas among fellow bikers and the possibility of such a strenuous expedition, couple of days later it gathered ideas and bloomed in to a wholesome movement to highlights the importance of cycling. Such tours do create awareness among the public to revive the old cycling ways which has whole lot of benefits like cycling for health and pollution free mode of transport.

The movement apart from being an adventurous trail that pans 910 kms of cultures and varying tropical landscapes for the participant, it will create awareness enroute by means of organizing cycle rallies in prominent places to highlight the benefit of cycling. The organizers trying to create excitement around this event planned to kick of on December 24th, such that the media takes notice of this tour and the message is conveyed .

For me cycling was the sole mode of transport to roam around Nilgiris then, I have biked around the country sides of Nilgiris since my teens, in the summer hols as bike packer we would set out in the BSA slrs and champs wading thru uncharted terrains filled with rolling grasslands, shola thickets, jiving thru water bodies skidding on soling roads fun fun to the brim. Thou i dont find much time these days to go biking it is still in my toe to push a peddle or two.............

TFN Tour of Nilgiris is calling upon like minded enthusiasts to join in whatever way they can to promote this event with the motto to revive the cycling habit all over again

visit TFN

Weeping Gods

Shot at the Kamaraj Sagar Dam Nilgiris on the Ganesha vajirnam day

A ritual that did good for the independence in rousing the nationalistic fervor – eventually took over by the hue of saffron in a big way it was abduction of the custom (of sort) or a smart orientation of Ganesh Churthithi to be associated with the saffron brigade, (this phenomenon is mostly evident in the Southern India) neither did we realize it happen all along. Most of the time we don't question the basic premise behind these customs or ritual in the current scenario, but that is how most of customs and rituals have been for years and for generations they are the symbols of cultural identities and one doesn't reason them, just go thru it with reverence and celebrations if need be. Once you start reasoning then it manifests or zeros down to the core of our cultural beliefs, it is the shadow of our social wantons, subscribing it for brandishing the ego of our beliefs, one such is this custom of the Ganesh Idol immersion what has turned into the much publicized heart thumping show in the edge of religious glorification, thou these kind of customs brings out common man thru local groups, neighborhood clubs, religious sabhas and other cultural clubs together, it is a good comradeship. As we move with the times we and the religious heads interpret and modify the rituals or customs to suit according to our whims and fancies when this is very much acceptable. Now why cannot we apply the same modification to this custom as well - the custom of immersing the Ganesha's idol in the water bodies if the religious heads see reasons and care for the environs, rather then polluting the water bodies the solution can be arrived like as creating a solid idol immersing the idol in the water bodies and retrieve it back the same to be reused for next year this way the ritual remains intact ,the water bodies not polluted and above all the dignity and respect to the idol as god is upheld.

Transportation by all Means

In the deep recesses of sathy forests this is transport by all means, one is always inquisitive if the great Indian development ethos hasn't arrived here as yet. It will remain as a paradigm that equates the human aspiration on one side and the greater common good of conservation on the other side which will be detrimental to development For these people who have sustained in this part of the world for generation as as predominant herders and cultivating upstream settlers. The fallout of the greater common good side is the development marginalization which is very much evident here, attributing to conservation of the critical wildlife habitat that this region boosts of as an Elephant corridor and a haven to host of other endangered species. These people are thus denied of their share in the great Indian Development pie.

A mud road that leads from the town of Bhavani Dam all the way to Thengumarada dotted with small settlements of Hallimoyar, Gazallhatti and Kallampalayam. This route is being serviced by a Government Bus once in a day with erratic timings and by the milk van that you see in the above frame. It is a 2 hours drive from Bhavani Dam.

See Adventure Hear History

This place has gone down in the history as a mysterious pillar, deep south east in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve around 5 km from Kil Kotagiri lies this unusual rock formation, what is called The Rangaswami Pillar, how it got this name is still sketchy - it is said that one Mr Ragaswami had his estate below this Pillar hence the name, So be it, but it is a real visual treat to sit there and admire this unique rock column jutting out from a thick green cover resembling like a green cauliflowers staked on the mountain flanks. Now the history part of it, in the year 1950 a Chennai to Trivandrum bound Air-India flight deviated from its due landing course of Coimbatore and crashed on this pillar ! All 20 passengers and crew on board were found dead.

What used to be our regular trek and exploration trip on weekends - this being one such sojourn myself Dinesh and Purushoth decided to look around Rangaswami Pillar on the way we roped in Giri of kotagiri Hari mess a wildlife enthusiast with lotta energy and passion for Nilgiris, he guided us to to Rangaswami Pillar a moderate one hour trek from Kil Kotagiri through tea estates, shola forests and grass lands ( it was surprising to come across grass lands in the eastern side of Nilgiris). Done with the trek and back in Kotagiri we were discussing about the trek when Giri told us that he was in possession the new paper article published in 1953 carrying the news of the above mentioned plane crash which got us excited and as we read through the article which deliberated the sequence, the search undertaken and the details of the persons on board so on. It was heartening to hear and at the same time it gave us an inquisitive historical angle to our exploration. Read the full text reproduced here

Another perspective of the Pillar from Kallampalayam in the Segur Ghats

Venu seeing sullivans Blue Mountains

The spotless blue skies staring down on the brick and mortar structure staved off in a nondescript village of Nilgiris –which is claiming to get back to its hay days again. Built in the year 1819 by John Sullivan – The Collector of Coimbatore this building is the first modern construction to come up in Nilgiris. The irony is that - one cannot understand what cometh to this important piece of history to be in the oblivion and state of neglected all these years. Thou the general antagonism for the British remnants are obvious in the plains but in Nilgiris it was different, by and large the Victorian & gothic style architecture was ideally suited more so for it is climatic adaptation and to the sylvan settings the residue of this kind of architectural style is evident even in the post British Raj period buildings. Many a factors went in to disintegrating this structure and to demean its importance one of the main factor being the place where it was located - Dhimbhatty (5 km from Kotagiri) which lost out to the subsequently explored Kotagiri & thereafter the Ootacamund through which the roads where planned this might be the one of the reason, as for the ownership of this bungalow changed in to various hands thereby it lost its significance eventually it was deserted by its last possessor until SNC took note of the importance of this building in 1988 and proposed to the administration to restore the Pethakal Bungalow (as it was called by the natives here). It was by the efforts of Shri P C Alexander, Governor of Tamil Nadu at that time and there after By Shri Supriya Sahu – Collector of Nilgiris in the year-2002 that this building was restored to its original plan and in the year 2005 it was hand over By Collector of Nilgiris (Mr VijayRaj Kumar) to SNC for maintenance and promotion.

And thus SNC is promoting The Sullivans Bungalow in a big way with lots of plans for the future to see it grow as a archive of The Nilgiris rich history. Envisioned by D.Venugopal Coordinator of SNC – The Nilgiri Documentation Centre is already in operation here with collection of priceless old photographs artifacts meticulously documented and exhibited.

And about D.Venugopal an economist by profession, founder coordinator of Save Nilgiris Campaign, his mind soul and thoughts lie in Nilgiris. I have not come across any one so obsessed with Nilgiris.

Gelfs Own

Country

( gulf that iis how it is pronounced in Kerala and it is every other youths aspiration to head to gelf and make it big)

Having been to gulf’s own country (pronounced as gelf) for couple of days one thing is really evident the gelf’s economy has actually helped upkeep the Wynad’s pristine forest and the ecology at large!! And it seems this part of the country looks so different from the others with good roads (I am talking about monsoons heartlands) dotted with small towns, well defined neo aesthetics buildings that have good mix of contemporary and traditionalism merging in to the plantation landscape. Very courteous people better informed, they know the importance of their place!! By and large Wynad has a unique climes and fertile land mass; here you can see coconut trees and high altitude tea bush side by side.

Taking about places we went around in Kallpetta which
was an ancient Jain Settlement there is an old Jain Temple here. And about the ancient ways there is a 6000 year old rock art craving site Edakal Caves – The ASI is on excavation here, on what is supposedly a natural cave formed due to an earthquake, with a gaping fissure pegged above by a huge rock boulder hence the name EDAKAL (roughly the centre stone) there is a huge flat face crevice adjacent to this carving site, if your adventurous knees love to crawl and your head can defy some degree of vertigo (we had both) you can climb the rock face above this cave (they have erected ladders and ropeways at inaccessible patches) the view from the top is awesome and worth a climb, having said that the climb is easier then the decent cause it is a near vertical face so you would be facing steep gorge down below - sounds dizzy. Coming to the Wynad’s famed diversity what remains are clumps of island forest diversity due to thriving plantation and resort clamoring’s nonetheless these islands are protected, what we where at loss was the invincible Chembra Peak that we wanted to climb (due to forest fire the permission’s were denied)

Photos- first one shot in the Edakal caves.
Second one shot on the peak above of the cave

Mile Stone for every ONE

AAhhhh! An old mile stone pillar that you will seldom see these days

Look how far Coonoor is from Ooty - 11 miles (it is 18km) an old milestone withered its times still looking cute and better of then all those iron n sheet fabricated direction boards that has come and gone, few still jutting out like rusted gardeners blade stalking the bystanders!

Shot at St Stephan Church gate.Ooty

Now my personal milestone of all the days I counted out of my ever decreasing formative years spent iridescently on myriad self imposed miseries now I am desperately seeking directions a meaningful one at that.

Hence these milestone (the literal one) of the New Year signify the threshold to take guard on a different wicket, to scoff at the posterity, and to augustly welcome the days ahead of me to accomplish all that I set out to achieve.

Wishing every one out there with the vision for 

2008 a

Happy and Prosperous year to come

Ya here we come.