Coonoor - Devoid of flat land

An interesting morning view

Nestled in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, Coonoor is a picturesque municipality. My introduction to this location came in the context of Rabi's vaccine. This vaccine was manufactured by the esteemed Pasteur Institute, which was inaugurated in 1907. Notably, the institute is recognized for its production of various vaccines, including DPT.

History

Originally established as a European settlement in 1834, Coonoor underwent a period of demographic stasis. Even after being declared a municipality in 1866, the population remained modest at 1,500. However, a gradual increase ensued, reaching 8,500 by 1901; then to 46,000 by 2011. During this period, Ooty (formerly known as Ootacamund) gained popularity, leading to the construction of new roads like the Old Mettupalayam road in 1833, linking Ooty with rail facilities at Mettupalayam. In 1871, a more gently sloping route was constructed.

The Nilgiri Railway Company initiated the project to connect Coonoor to the rail network in 1899, although the company itself did not witness its completion due to subsequent liquidation. The Madras Railway took charge, and later, the decision was made to extend the rail line to Ooty.

For an extended period, my desire to travel via scenic Nilgiri Mountain Railway didn't happen due to a number of reasons. On a previous trip to Ooty, I deviated from the usual route, choosing the Mannarkkad- Manjoor- Ooty road instead of the more conventional Coonoor-Mettupalaym-Ooty route. This time, there was a family wedding just outside Coimbatore in Mettupalayam road; leading to a new plan - attend the wedding, visit Coonoor and proceed to Ooty, and then return to Mannarkkad via Mulli.

On the morning of the wedding, we set out early, around seven, taking Mannarkkad- Attapadi- Anaikatti- Coimbatore road. This scenic route, particularly the stretch from Aanamooly to the Mukkali check post, is really good. Mukkali, serving as the gateway to Silent Valley, is the place where one has to get down to explore Silent Valley National Park. Due to time constraints, we refrained from extended stops, making only a brief pause at the Attapadi viewpoint. After the wedding, around noon, we picked up my aunt and started our journey to Coonoor. The next main town on the way was Mettupalayam. From here Coonoor is some 34 kilometers away.

Coonoor

Still a few kilometers shy of reaching the city, the road maintains its pleasant quality. This route, linking Gudalur, Ooty, and Coonoor to Coimbatore city, is consistently bustling with traffic. A nominal fee is required for entry into the Nilgiris district for outside vehicles. Since mine was registered in Karnataka, payment is mandatory. It's worth noting that Coonoor lacks straight or flat roads/lands; instead, its thoroughfares are characterized by frequent curves and slopes, with some being notably narrow. Our accommodation was at 'YMCA Wyoming', it took some time to locate this place. In fact we crossed the bus stand twice before finally reaching here. Hotel is a good old colonial building. 

WMCA Wyoming - An old colonial building

After settling to the room, I came down with Divya and took a walk around the hotel; there was a slight rain. Mom and her sister was tired and they stayed in the room itself. It was a nice place to explore, we walked towards the road and then followed its curves and finally reached a small outlet which sells homemade waffles and other items. We went in and ordered some. There were some 3-4 tables; one was occupied by a couple and another one by owner's daughter. She is concentrated on completing her homework on that Saturday afternoon. It took some more time for our items to come. It's still raining and there is no expectation that, it will stop anytime soon especially as we were in July - monsoon time. So we just opened the big umbrella and walked further down in that deserted road. There was no destination in mind. Sometimes, just walking itself is more than enough; if there is rain then its better.

Night was cold but not unbearable. On next day morning we woke up early; came down and stretched hand in the courtyard. It was a nice view. After breakfast we checked out and moved towards our first destination - Sim's park.

Sim's park

At Sim's park

Named after J.D. Sims, the then Secretary to the Government, and Major Murray collaborated to transform an existing park into a planned botanical garden, Situated in the northern part of the city, near Pasteur Institute, this expansive park covers 12 hectares of land. Boasting a diverse collection of plant species this is a well maintained park. The Department of Horticulture annually organizes a fruit and vegetable show within the park.

Tea Factory

Exploring the high ranges always involves a visit to a coffee or tree plantation. We came across this tea factory while searching for a tea plantation to visit. Although the factory itself was undergoing renovation, the staff showed the inner workings of the machinery. Adjacent to it, there was a eucalyptus factory that which churn out the oil. We purchased some locally grown tea, chocolates and other items and strolled through the lush plantation. The serene ambiance made me wish for more time, perhaps an early morning leisure walk, but it was time to go. We slowly walked back towards the car, ready to start our next adventure – lunch :) It took a bit of time, but we eventually found a charming Kerala restaurant.

By the way, there are numerous tea estates in the area, and quite a few offer accommodation options. While the cost of staying within these estates may be higher than lodging outside, it provides some unique experience like residing amidst the beauty of a tea plantation.

Inside Tea Factory

Dolphin's nose

As the saying goes, "the journey is better than the destination," this statement proved correct for us on this occasion. The drive itself was captivating, dotted with numerous viewpoints along the roadside. Unfortunately, when we reached Dolphin's Nose, the thick fog obscured almost everything, limiting the visibility to a great extent.

Lamb's rock

Proceeding from Dolphin's Nose, we ventured towards Lamb's Rock. Although the fog had cleared, the scenic offerings were somewhat limited. Subsequently, we started our return journey, heading back to Coonoor town, and from there, we continued our journey to towards Ooty.

Sajeev

Notes:

1, History of Coonoor - Clean Coonoor

2, Coimbatore City to Coonoor is under 60kms. 

Book of Life - 5

The day came and went quickly. In the morning, there were so many things on the to-do list. By night, most of them were done. It's so rare that I was able to put a tick mark across most to-do items. However, in the night when I sat back and took stock of things, there was no sense of achievement. Was I chasing ghosts? Or was I eating the sweetest frog first instead adhering to Brian Tracy's counsel to confront the ugliest one first?

When I went through the articles about recent world events, an interesting pattern came to my attention. The first event was the climate summit (COP28) just finished in Dubai, and the second one was the cease-fire in Gaza. Regarding COP28, it was hosted by UAE, which is ironic because the summit aimed to save the world from increasing carbon emissions, and the UAE is one of the largest producers of fossil fuel. UAE's interest is aligned with the continuing use of fossil fuel. The irony didn't end there; the president of the summit also has a full-time job as the head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)!

The second event, the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, was brokered neither by the UN (the world organization supposed to stop wars), nor the US, EU, Egypt (Rafa crossing is between Egypt and Gaza), nor Jordan (which ruled the West Bank until 1967). Instead, it was brokered by Qatar. If one follows the news from the Middle East for a while, it's clear that Qatar is everywhere. They even brokered the mediation between the Taliban and the US in Doha during the US exit from Afghanistan. Now, if you look at Qatar, its size is slightly larger than the tiny Indian state of Tripura, and it has 3-4 hundred thousand native citizens who hold the passport. That is not the point; the point is, Qatar is the 4th or 5th richest country (by per capita GDP), and they are ready to use their wealth. As we all know, wealth also brings much power and opens doors if you are ready to use it.

Sajeev

Note: 

1, ADNOC is the 12th largest oil producer by volume!!! 

2, Egypt is the only country other than Israel which shares border with Gaza. Also Egypt controlled Gaza strip from 1948 to 1967.

3. West Bank- the other bigger Palestinian territory - was ruled by Jordan till 1967. 

4, Qatar population is 2,532,104 (2023 est.) out of that Qataris are just 11.6%

Book of Life - 4

I finally finished 'Annihilation of Caste' by B.R. Ambedkar. One may or may not agree with his thoughts, but I strongly believe people should read this speech at least once.

Later, I picked up Richard Feynman's 'What Do You Care What Other People Think?'. I liked the book immediately. He started with his childhood days and how his father explained concepts to him, and how he began looking at things for what they are. There are some interesting incidents, such as finding a logical explanation for miracles mentioned by priests. On another occasion as a child, he believed in a story until the narrator admitted to spiking it to get attention. After hearing this the kid started crying. The book later goes through the courtship with his wife, their subsequent marriage, and the initial misdiagnosis of her disease. The misdiagnosis occurred because the doctors overlooked an obvious disease that explained her symptoms.

A good portion of the book is dedicated to explaining his role as a member of the presidential commission investigating the shuttle accident. It discusses how information did not move up the chain of command and how often and easily the data and opinions provided by people directly working on the machines and engineers on the ground were disregarded. There is a part where Feynman asks a group and their manager to write down the probability of shuttle accident; while engineers wrote a possible value, their manager provided an impossible probability. It's really insightful to read about how their commission worked.

Without telling you about 'Feynman's Lectures on Physics,' this is not complete. I heard about this book a long time ago when I was in senior secondary. During my first year in college, I found this book in the post-graduation section of the library. This book had a reputation for explaining physics concepts in simple, understandable terms. The problem was that the book was in English, and for someone like me who went through the vernacular medium (i.e., Malayalam) throughout school life, it was not an easy task to go through a book purely due to my interest in physics. I wish these books were translated into local languages and available in all libraries. That time, I read the first book in the series and then left it on the rack.

Sajeev

Book of Life - 3

I subscribed to Audiable sometime back. It didn't turn out the way I expected. Hearing a book read by someone else is totally different compared to self-reading. However, I kept the subscription and over a period, heard a few audio books. The last one I added to library was - 'Ambedkar's India'. It’s a collection of three works by B. R. Ambedkar. Yesterday, I started listening to the second work in that series, the famous speech from Ambedkar which was never delivered!!! - The annihilation of caste. 

The irony is caste was never annihilated; instead, politicians/religious leaders etc. from all spectra used it to accumulate wealth and power. There were many improvements, many states in India witnessed the formation of new social contracts between castes. However, this didn’t extend across the length and breadth of the country. In some cases, when previously downtrodden caste became the elite, they didn’t help the castes which are still below them in social order to come up. 

I am yet to finish the book. Some of my favorite lines are, 

"..who repeats the dogma of Mill that one country is not fit to rule another country, must admit that one class is not fit to rule another class..."

"..India, where the priest holds a sway over the common man often greater than that of the magistrate, and where everything, even such things as strikes and elections, so easily takes a religious turn and can so easily be given a religious twist.."

"Caste System is not merely a division of labour. It is also a division of labourers...in no civilized society is division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into watertight compartments. The Caste System is not merely a division of labourers which is quite different from division of labour—it is a hierarchy in which the divisions of labourers are graded one above the other. In no other country is the division of labour accompanied by this gradation of labourers..."

"..The ancestors of the present-day English fought on one side or the other in the Wars of the Roses and the Cromwellian War. But the descendants of those who fought on the one side do not bear any animosity—any grudge—against the descendents of those who fought on the other side. The feud is forgotten.." 

Well you know what is happening in India now!!! Descendants are fighting over things which happened centuries ago!!!

"Chaturvarnya, it seems to me that the system is neither fool-proof nor knave-proof. What is to happen if the Brahmins, Vaishyas, and Kshatriyas fail to pursue knowledge, to engage in economic enterprise, and to be efficient soldiers, which are their respective functions? Contrarywise, suppose that they discharge their functions, but flout their duty to the Shudra or to one another; what is to happen to the Shudra if the three classes refuse to support him on fair terms, or combine to keep him down? Who is to safeguard the interests of the Shudra—or for that matter, those of the Vaishya and Kshatriya—when the person who is trying to take advantage of his ignorance is the Brahmin? Who is to defend the liberty of the Shudra—and for that matter, of the Brahmin and the Vaishya—when the person who is robbing him of it is the Kshatriya?

"...although there are castes among Non-Hindus, as there are among Hindus, caste has not the same social significance for Non-Hindus as it has for Hindus. Ask a Mohammedan or a Sikh who he is. He tells you that he is a Mohammedan or a Sikh, as the case may be. He does not tell you his caste, although he has one; and you are satisfied with his answer. When he tells you that he is a Muslim, you do not proceed to ask him whether he is a Shiya or a Suni; Sheikh or Saiyad; Khatik or Pinjari. When he tells you he is a Sikh, you do not ask him whether he is Jat or Roda, Mazbi or Ramdasi. But you are not satisfied, if a person tells you that he is a Hindu. You feel bound to inquire into his caste. Why? Because so essential is caste in the case of a Hindu, that without knowing it you do not feel sure what sort of a being he is..."

Well, I am not going to quote more here. The link at the end has full text and Ambedkar’s reason on why he was not able to deliver the speech. By the way, the last paragraph reminded me of an incident which happened probably a decade ago at Baroda Railway station. I reached the station very early in the morning and had to spend some time there (to save cost, I used to travel in the night and use railway clock room to keep the luggage while visiting the city) as Palace and other tourist attractions in city will take some more time to open. 

I met a guy here. He was probably coming from Pune and going to his native town, some place bordering Delhi. He completed B.Tech from a famous government college and is now preparing for GATE exams also working for reputed Indian private company as a Chemical engineer or something. As it happened sometime back, I don’t remember all the details. Why I give this otherwise lengthy introduction is to show that he is a product of modern India. 

During the conversation, he asked my name. I told him the first name. He looked at me for some time and asked for the second name. This in fact perplexed me. Other than in government documents or to fill in some form no one ever asked my second name so far!!! I told him that too. He was confused and it looked like he wanted to clarify something but didn’t ask anything. To this day, I am not sure why he asked. My guess is, he may want to find out which caste I belong to. Anyway, my second name is not useful for that purpose. 

Sajeev

You can read Annihilation of Caste here -> Full Text

Book of Life - 2

Usually, if I like the theme, then I watch 'Cut the Clutter' program by Shekhar Gupta during breakfast. Today, while waking up, I opened YouTube and yesterday’s episode was on 'Rezang La'. I read about this battle long back, while reading an article on Major Shaitan Singh who was awarded Param Veer Chakra (PVC) for this battle. 'Rezang La' witnessed one of the fiercest last-stand by Indian army during India-China war of 1962 in western part of high Himalayas. Not getting into the details. Links are available at the end. 

Today afternoon teachers from Divya's mother's school came to visit my daughter. She slept most of the time they were here. However, when they were about to leave, she woke up to say Hi. Had a brief chat with one retired teacher in that group. She recently went to Lakshadweep, Bhutan and Russia. Her mother, who is in the 80s, was one of the energetic participants in their Lakshadweep trip!!! I like to travel, but will I be so physically fit when the 90s touch my door? I don't know. I would like to say yes; and hopefully time will prove me right. Currently I don’t want to think about any other answer. 

You can read about the war here -> Rezang_La and watch Shekhar Gupta's episode here -> 'Cut the Clutter' - Rezang La

Sajeev