Nilgiris Diaries Part 8

30 Jan 2010
The last day :(We were comparitively relaxed as we were not travelling anywhere.After breakfast we had a walkthrough of the declaration to add/ modify any points we deemed necessary.After that everyone changed into traditional dresses. We all prepared for our presentations. A few champions presented what they had got for the camp representing their projects. One tribe had a skit to show their presentation and it was just amazing. After the valediction everyone started clicking pics. We were given our certificates, a mug , a CD and one information brochure from British Council. The photo session continued for long. After lunch, I came back to room by about 3 and started packing. It was a tough job mind you! At 430 or so we were supposed to start for coimbatore. This extended till 530 I guess. Finally with all the bags loaded on the bus, we sat in our respective seats and talked and sang. Eventually everyone slept off. Around 9 we stopped for Dinner at one very nice hotel (I forgot the name :( ) Me, Sohini, Godwin and Bannick talked a lot on the dinner table. Later we reached our hotel - Alankar at coimbatore. We all spoke to each other, bade goodbyes to many, scribbled each others shirts/ notebooks/ envelops and then retired to our rooms. Next morning 6 'O' clock was supposed to be the strating time for airport to reach chennai. Bannick's ticket was cancelled by mistake, Bharadwaj took a loong break before checkin, Bannick had to keep some of his cabin luggage stuff in checkin, however, after all these things, we finally boarded the flight. Having reached Chennai at 0930, we were wondering what to do. My next flight was at 1130, Angu's at 2, Shruti and Sundeep were in their hometown, Bannick, Bharadwaj and Sohini were to take a 12 'O' clock flight to Mumbai. These five decided to go to Chennai and me and angu stayed back. No place to kill time :(. And we were supposed to be at different terminals for departure. So that one hour was quite boring. But finally I boarded the flight to hyderabad, reached at around 1245, got my baggage and everything by 1 and waited for 0130 aeroexpress. And this is how my eventful, memorable journey to the blue mountains ended !!!

Nilgiris Diaries Part 7

29 Jan 2010
Having seen a bear on my way back the last night, having had a nice talk with Angu and Sohini, having took a refreshing soothing hot water bath at 1 in the morning and having slept for 4 and a half hours, I was woken up by the screeching sound of my alarm. Reason - > 6 AM safari. I was damn sleepy. But I wanted to attend the safari too. So just rushed and ran to the bus. On the way, Godwin shouted - 'Hey Look, Elephants!!' and I woke up to a pleasant surprise - some 5 -6 wild elephants some 10 metres away. It was such a nice sight. We started again, reached the interpretation centre and took the safari from there. I was again sleeping on the bus before all of us stopped to see a herd of deers. Too many of them! And then Mayo falls. It was beautiful. Then we saw a few birds, an eagle, a peacock.I was so hoping to see a tiger though :( Anyways. It was time for us to go back before I realised. We were back at the resort by 1030, had our breakfast, packed our stuff and started for an event at Charing Cross. It was the garlanding of Gandhiji's statue. Various statements like 'Nature has enough for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed' and 'Be the change you want to see in the world' were floating around. Following this we went for shopping - oils, soaps, incense, tea, home made chocolates and what not!I bought two mufflers as well. We saw the bee museum and then rushed off to the bus to be taken for another lecture on economy and climate change. It turned out to be a discussion more than lecture. At lunch the media people (deepak et al) left. We finished and reached SAH. It was almost 7 by the time we reached. There was a beautiful arrangement for dinner that night at SAH with folk songs, dance and camp fire. There was a lot of electricity wastage though :( Then we had a lot of work. Presentations, declarations, discussions and so on. Our tribe sat in my room to work on the presentation. We agreed on a basic framework and Colin agreed to do the photos. The hectic yet enjoyebale day ended at 2 AM.

Nilgiris Diaries Part 6

28 Jan 2010

This day was for the visit to Dry Deciduous forest.
There was a small talk by IISC Research fellows on their project work in that area. After that Gokul sir told us about the basics of acrylic painting of landscapes. Many of us tried. It was great fun. Then we had another one of our sessions of outdoor lunch. Larissa and Caroline missed this because they were not feeling well. Even Colin and Amy were a little under the weather :(. Following this we went to Mudhumalai Interpretation Centre. We had a session with the field director there. This session was highly motivating and inspiring. Afterwards, we saw elephants being fed as per their dietary requirements. There was one small baby elephant who was really cute. She seemed hungry and after being fed, looked adorable. Tuskers looked awesome. We clicked a lot of photos. We were supposed to take an evening safari to the Mudhumalai forest but unfortunately we couldn't. We went to Bear Mountain Resort where we were supposed to rest for the night. It was an amazing place. I, Dinju and Sohini were roommates. Many people opted for a tree house. The place was beautiful!! We had a small campfire. Everyone shared a lot of interesting stories! Angu in particular had an eventful day. It was also Ayan's birthday the next day. So we cut a cake for him. Zhao topped his exams and was about to experience the Indian way of congratulating - bumps- but Anu Ma'am saved him. Then few people went for dancing and rest came back to talk. All in all, another fabulous day spent at a beautiful place.

Nilgiris Diaries Part 5

27 Jan 2010
The last night was still posing its pressure on my tiny weeny already tired mind. So I didn’t want to get up early. But 0600 AM had started looking reasonable by then. It was going to be an exciting day as per our schedule. We were going to go to Upper Bhavani. After breakfast all of us were –‘On the bus’ in Anu Ma’am’s words J. She is really great! And Rajani Ma’am! Managing a bunch of 38 people from across the globe at a place where we were to reach in a 3 hours drive on meandering roads. Hats off to both of them. We had decided to sit in groups according to our tribes but that dint help much as most of the travelling time was spent avoiding motion sickness. Most of the people (at least me) slept for most part of the journey. I sat with Amy first and later went on the last seat because the open window was making me feel cold at the first seat. We stopped twice on the way. Once for the Upper Bhavani dam and once a few kilometers from Upper Bhavani. There, me and Sohini went off to look around. We took a different path and saw an isolated house. I, being my inquisitive self, went ahead and knocked. It was open. When we didn’t get any response I went in and lo! We saw beer bottles and playing cards there. It didn’t look like a good option to stand there and invite any unwanted trouble. When we came out, we couldn’t hear anyone down the slope. It seemed we had been there for too long and so we started running towards our bus. As expected, we heard people shouting for us. We were the last ones to reach. Somehow we were spared any warnings. We reached Mukurthi National Park at 1130 AM. We were told that it is really tough to get permission to enter that protected forest area. Quite excited, the trekking began! It was an amazing place. We saw frost bite suffered tress, shoal forest patches in the grasslands, folded mountains, beautiful river, deers and heard Anu and Rajani Ma’am telling us about a deer being chased by a wild dog. We clicked lots of pics. Saw Rhododendrons – native to Nilgiris, elephant and tiger’s scat J . Somaiya gave us some wild berries to eat from there. They were really yummie. After the trek we were back at the entry gate of Mukurthi National Park by 1430 and had lunch. The river water was looking very nice, pristine and too tempting to resist. Me and Narmadha ran off thinking we will come back fast unnoticed. To our surprise there were already some 4-5 people down the slope. Godwin, Khaled, Anirudh all of them were there. I kept my feet in water. It was so refreshing and smoothening. All of them were throwing stones in the river to capture ripples in pics. When me and Narmadha were in water, stones grew bigger L . I got a little drenched. Godwin showed us how animals drink water from river. I tried that too! Back in bus, I slept all way through, to avoid motional sickness. Then we went to a Toda hamlet, saw toda home. It was a nice experience. Finally started for SAH, were really tired by the time we reached. But then we had a lecture on land slides. It turned out to be real informative. After dinner the tribe discussions continued and suggestions for declaration. Finally we all went to our respective rooms to pack for the next day – Mudhumalai

Nilgiris Diaries Part 4

26 Jan 2010
The arduous task of getting up early, way earlier than my usual time, was becoming a little easier by now. Got up at 0600, got ready and then off to breakfast. I don’t know how but I savored fruits for breakfast a lot. My mom would have been so happy had she been there. At 0815 we had a session by Mr. Edwin on journalism. That lecture was a real wow. He had done his background work well. He got all relevant stories with him and he had studied our profiles and projects pretty well. He gave powerful sentences with impact. He taught us about the relevance and magnitude, about responsible journalism, 5 Ws and an H and a lot of examples. Then we did a flag hoisting because it was our republic day :). We sang national song and national anthem. Then we went to CSWCRTI (Central Soil and Water Conservation, Research and Training Institute). The lectures there were quite scientific and technology oriented. We were supposed to go for a field visit there but the time went by in questions all of us had for the faculty and scientists there. So we directly went for Dr. Tarun's talk on Todas – quite an emotional one, looked like Dr. Tarun had a very passionate connect with the Toda tribe. At lunch table, Dina looked a little disappointed by all the scientific lectures, given that she was from Social Sciences background. We discussed on Politics, Policies and Education amongst other. After lunch we went to see the Tribal Research Centre. Some of the pictures there were really moving. Tired with a lot of travelling by then, we were back on our buses for Godwin’s house. He grows barley and other cereals down the slope of his house!! The flowers around were really pretty. One more thing everyone noticed there was his dog! We had tea and patties over there and then finally started back for SAH. Our republic day happened to be the most responsibility giving day for us at the camp too. We were told about the expected outcomes of this action trail at the Blue Mountains - the declaration – the general one and Nilgiris specific one and the team tribal presentations. Having known the expectations, all the champions got started the same day. Dinner after, everyone was seen discussing within their groups on their observations for the days so far. 2 people from each tribe were nominated for the declaration as the entire group doing one document would have been cumbersome to manage. Irulars sent Shruti and Somaiya for Nilgiri Specific and General Declaration. The long day finally ended and the warm room looked so pleasant and welcoming that all I could do after writing it was to sleep!!

Nilgiris Diaries Part 3

25 Jan 2010
The day began at 0600 AM in the morning. And it started with a cup of steaming hot tea, more than welcome after the crazily cold night, courtesy SAH staff (May God bless them all!) At 0630 I woke up my roommate Dinju. While she did her daily chores, I ironed my clothes. Then I took my bath and had breakfast. We left at around 0845 AM L 45 minutes later than the expected time; though it was our fault not getting ready on time. Every minute was being counted, especially by Sohini who wanted to spend maximum time possible in the virgin forest - The Longwood Sholas – otherwise out of bound. It was just amazing. The thick dense forests covered the entire canopy. The small swamps which, as we were told, turned out to be a huge source of water. We couldn’t see much fauna though - there was a Bisen and a giant Malabar squirrel. Sohini spotted a few birds and got a leech on herself. But otherwise it was great fun. We clicked a lot of pics. On our way back we were enjoying with songs. Sundar (Nepal) knew so many Hindi songs and old ones at that. We just got lost. Then we went to Sullivan Memorial and interacted with students of riverside school. One girl, Zen, was proving to be too hard to convince over the fact that climate change can be combated and sustainable development is possible. Her points of discussion were really thought provoking. A healthy discussion made us all probe deeper for the plausible solutions to environmental concerns. After lunch there we went to kodannad view point. It was simply superb. Gokul sir taught us how to draw a basic landscape and well I would like to think that I did a decent job J . From there we started for Wellington theatre to watch Avatar (the third time for me) I slept throughout the whole journey. Movie was good and we reached here at about 0945 in SAH. Had dinner and then a visit to Godwin's room to collect our kits. The jacket, t-shirt and pants – all were oversize for meL, but at least the cap fitted. And then, retirement to our rooms – greedily waiting for the next day adventure!

Nilgiris Diaries Part 2

24 Jan 2010
Got up at 0540, rushed, but fortunately or unfortunately electricity went off, so slept again and got up at 0620. It was almost time for the breakfast by the time I got ready so ran for it (can’t live without food off late ;) Since I was done with packing the previous night itself, came to board the bus for SAH. I sat with Haripriya (Chennai). Sohini (Pune), Gautham (Kerala), Dina (Norway), Angu (Assam), Larissa (Germany), Khaled (UK) and Mohammed (Libya) were all there.. a truly diverse international trip ;) - we were singing songs all the while. Dina joined us too. We stopped on the way to see landslides. Nilgiris has had a terrible encounter with the landslides in November 2009. There were a lot of monkeys too – and some lemurs. We had tender coconut on the way and a lot of fun :) But this tender coconut water came with its share of trouble. I had to stop the bus in between in search of a toilet :(. We reached coonor at around 1 PM. After being allotted the rooms (my room had a fire place and an antique feel:)), we started checking out the place. I was in room 3 with one cute girl from Kerala, Dinju Ann Sebastian , Anu Ma'am and Rajani Ma'am in 1, Godwin in 2, 4 guys in 4, that room was huge, Shruti, Dina and Haripriya in 6 and so on.. (That’s all I remember actually ;)). We had our lunch which comprised of rice, chicken, rasam, banana, soup, some curry. It was nice. Then began a series of lectures. We had a talk with Mr. Krishnan on environmental laws and policies. I was feeling damn sleepy (Sorry Anu Ma’am but I was really tired) At around 5 almost all lectures were over, including the inaugural one by the Nilgiris district collector. We came out for tea, then there was a skit in Tamil (street play) on afforestation. Later we danced on dholak - it was so much fun. I talked to Ranjeeta Buti ma'am. Later we were called in for a small briefing for tomorrow - a visit to Longwood Shola forests. Anu ma'am was speaking of leeches which scared a lot of people. We were advised to wear open toed shoes and full pants. This session was followed by a tribal meeting and then dinner. Dinner was nice too - noodles, soup, rice, daal, rasam and roasted potato. After dinner we had a session on NBR wildlife, which was really really nice. JP Sir (CR Jayaprakash) gave this presentation and he had been on over 75 treks. Wildlife photography and personal stories related to them, who wouldn’t like it? Then I took pics of beautiful paintings in the halls and finally came off to my room - talked a lot to my roommate – Dinju. She is an athlete! That’s why so fit. We were supposed to get up by 6 AM the next morning. So, all I did after writing this entry was to say - Good Night :)

Nilgiris Diaries Part 1

23 Jan 2010
I slept at around 1 AM, dead tired after coming from Tassu's reception. I wore a sari, pink one and I think I was looking kinda cute. Pavithra came along for it was quite late in the night. I packed all my stuff before going to the reception as I had to catch the 0835 flight in the morning. Put 3 alarms from 530 to 545 just so I don’t miss the flight. I took 0615 aero express and reached the airport at 7. And then.... my flight was delayed and delayed and delayed... :(
It was 1310 when I finally boarded the fight. I slept off the moment I got my seat. A person by the name of Balaji (another participant of the action trail) was supposed to pick me up. He came some 10 minutes late. Meanwhile I called up Dad and told him that I had reached the first stop of my week long trip - Coimbatore a 1440. The airport was not very impressive but ok. Balaji introduced himself and off we left for IFGTB (Forestry Genetics College). I saw Anu ma'am, Archana, Haripriya, Sunndeep, Shruti, Bharadwaj, Sohini , Angshuman , Gautham and so many familiar faces. I was thrilled. I just picked up my handbag and left with the group for a lecture on carbon sequestration and open top chamber. It was a little monotonous but later on with questions became quite interesting. We saw the open top chamber experiment. I liked the place. It was so green. I asked for the way the data was stored and analyzed and hopefully I plan to look at it from IT point of view. Then we visited Gass Museum - it was awesome. So many stuffed animals, birds, eggs, reptiles, insects, wood and God knows what. Sohini filled me in with the details of what happened before I reached. I missed tree plantation at SACON :(. We them started for KKID - it was BEAUTIFUL. I got a single occupancy room ground floor SG 4 I guess. It was very pretty. Sundeep and Ayan were on either side of me. Oh yeah, the journey from FGC to KKID. In bus I sat with Dina- A girl from Norway, 2 years younger to me, with really pretty eyes. We talked about our respective countries. And I realized I should do some background work before coming - I dint know the population of Coimbatore :(. Anyways, back to KKID. I got my allowance (1000 bucks), a mosquito repellant cream and a water bottle. Then we were briefed about our tribes ( we were divided into 4 tribes - mine is Irulars and our color is green & brown) we got our respective color bracelets. In my group I knew Gautham & Shruti. Then we went for dinner. It was good. I ate a lot as usual :) Back to the room. I was tired; Archana, Shruti, Bharadwaj and Sundeep came to my room for watching a movie. Sohini got her new laptop. Sandeep suggested some movie from his hard disk - which was yuck. We stopped it in between. We watched an episode of 'How I met your mother' instead and then everyone headed to their rooms. Shruti gave us all chocolates. And then, I packed rest of my stuff, kept alarm for 0530 to 0545 and slept off :)