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 :)