The Eight

Surprisingly, I seem to be reading books faster than I can write about them here. So I am now trying to catch up. :-)

The book that I finished reading last week was "The Eight" by Katherine Neville. The plot in a nutshell is like this: Catherine Vellis - an accountant and computer expert is forced to go to Algeria on a project with a little-known organization called OPEC. As if this is not enough, she finds herself burdened with the responsibility of recovering the chess pieces belonging to what was called the Montglane Service that was rumored to have been gifted by some moors to Charlemagne - the king of the Franks. These pieces are supposed to be scattered to far corners of the earth in an attempt at stopping anyone from putting the service together to unleash the powerful forces associated with it.

It's a gripping tale and it's creditable considering that this is the debut novel of the authoress. But I must confess that some of the mathematical and musical explanations were a bit too much to grasp for me and so I skipped them. The tale keeps going back and forth between what's happening in Catherine's life in 1973 and what had happened in life of the French girl Mireille - who was forced to scatter the pieces all across the world - in 1793. It's a bit dizzying at times. What's more, it's difficult to keep track of the cast - at least for someone like me who is not familiar with the tongue-twisting French names - not to mention their titles.

All in all, a delightful book - save only for the intricacies of chess, music and mathematics.

Udhagamandalam - Day 2

My prayers were not answered however because when I got up in the morning it was raining and the valley was hidden behind the curtain of mist. Though it looked beautiful I was not happy that my sightseeing plans were already dashed. All throughout the breakfast I kept glancing outside with vague hopes of the weather getting cleared up. The rain was still with us when I approached the desk of the concierge - fortified by a hearty breakfast. He agreed that the weather didn't look good and might not clear up at all. He also advised me to stay indoors. But I wasn't ready to spend the whole day looking at the sad and disappointed faces of the fellow guests. So I told him I wanted to go out on the sightseeing tour as planned earlier- come rain or sunshine! I am sure he must have shaken his head at my stubbornness as soon as I turned my back but I didn't care.

My first halt was at the Botanical Gardens. It was still drizzling so I had to purchase an umbrella which I suspect the shopkeeper sold me for a handsome profit. Frankly speaking, I wasn't expecting much from this garden, I was 100% sure that inside I will find a few saplings, trees and assorted flora in various stages of neglect. But boy, was I wrong! The park was vast - there is no other word for it. And it was meticulously kept clean. No piles of stinking garbage waiting to welcome you! Though the flowers had tuned soggy at places because of the continuous drizzle it was a sight to behold with stretches of roads, walkways, a lake full of lotus leaves, a map of India made entirely out of shrubs, small brooks gurgling away merrily where you least expected them to be and a small neat coffee shop tucked away in a corner. My only regret was that hadn't it been raining I would have enjoyed it more. If you are in Ooty, don't miss this one.

Though I must have spent about one and a half hours inside, I was sure I hadn't covered everything. I hoped I would b able to come back again one day when it was not raining and check this place out. Why aren't there any shooting stars around when you sooo want to make a wish?

"Where are we going now" I asked the driver. "Tea factory and museum, madam" I did remember seeing a board on the first day on my way to the resort. I was surprised by the traffic jam outside the factory. It looked like lots of tourists had turned up there despite the bad weather. I was happy I wasn't the only crazy one. As I handed the tickets to the guy who opened the door he asked me if conversation in Hindi will be ok. I nodded and refrained from telling him that I wouldn't have understood any word he spoke in Tamil. He showed me some tea leaves stacked in a corner, parroted some information about this first step of the tea making process and told me I can take photo if I wanted. I told him "Photo nahi lena hai" (I don't want to take any snaps). He asked me if I have paid for taking snaps. I said yes and he started giving me my money back. Now I was confused. A few exchanges later I realized that he had misunderstood by remark to mean that I didn't want to take any photos and thus was paying me my money back! I must have stared with my mouth agape at this honesty. I cleared up the misunderstanding quickly and while we waited for more tourists to come I checked out the displays which made up for the museum.

They started with the tale of how tea was invented. A king - I have forgotten whether he was Japanese or Chinese, I think Chinese - was out with his entourage. He was very particular about boiling water before drinking it. The servents were boiling water when some leaves of a nearby shrub fell in - turning the water in a broth. The king tested it and he found it to be refreshing. Voila! The tea was discovered. Frankly, I don't think the king would have had it in him to taste an unfamiliar broth. I remember reading that the kings used to make slaves eat their food first to discover any attempt at poisoning. There used to be special chopsticks to discover that as well. So most likely the first ever taster of tea would have been a servant. Whatever the case, I thanked them both for such momentous discovery! On a display some distance ahead I read about the delightful "Boston Tea Party" that had always amused me as a child. Imagine the joy of dumping so much of tea in the water! Now as an adult I didn't find such a waste remotely amusing.

There was quite a crowd now so we all dutifully followed the guide who took us through various steps of tea making. I quickly learnt and forgot the full form of CTC. I took snaps of the weird looking machinery as I wondered who would have thought of designing it. Jokes apart, it was amazing to see what processes go into making the "humble" hot cuppa tea! As the factory tour ended, I handed out coupon that I was given at the entrance to a guy who poured me a cup of cardamom tea. I tasted it and immediately moved to the selling counter. All around me every tourist worth his or her salt (or was it tea?) was pointing to the tea just served and demanding the same. I joined the party and bought one pack. It just tasted so great! My advice - if you ever step into this tea factory, don't you dare step out without buying this cardamom tea. Oh and as I bought the pack I was told in no uncertain terms that I have to prepare it in milk only - no drop of water should be used. I nodded as I made my way back to the waiting car.

"Madam, don't do boating at Ooty Lake, its much better to do it at Pykara lake" the driver told me as he dropped me near ticket counter. The lake was sort of overflowing with water - and with tourists. Frankly the lake and the crowd both rather turned me off. Since I didn't have to do boating there waited just long enough to buy some homemade chocolates at a shop before walking towards the board marked as "Thread Garden".

I am ashamed to say that I wasn't listening very attentively when the attendant there told how this garden was made. It is a display of flowers and shrubs made entirely out of colored threads. The lighting was a bit dim - maybe to make it look more like the real thing. But the display was amazing. The fake flowers matched their real counterparts perfectly. A small pond with lotus flowers and leaves was breathtaking. Simply put, if no one told you it was fake, you wouldn't realize it was fake! I am not sure if this garden is going to be there permanently because what they had seemed like a make-shift arrangement to me. But if you go to Ooty Lake, do inquire about this garden and don't miss the chance to check it out.

It was going to be a drive of 45 minutes to Pykara falls. It was a scenic route. What I will always remember is one stretch of the route which had trees/shrubs all laden with beautiful yellow flowers. It looked like a riot of yellow color all around, Simply amazing! Presently we passed a dam - the driver informed me that the last climax in the movie Roja (starring Arvind Swami and Madhu) was shot here. He also told me that most of the film was shot in the Nilgiris. The loud honking from the car behind made us speed up our car but the driver shook his head and said since the water wasn't released in the dam, there won't be much to see at the falls. I digested this disappointing news in silence. When we reached the sight of the falls, he repeated again told me not to expect anything spectacular "it's just a step waterfall, madam" whatever that meant. I just nodded, managed a weak smile and got down.

You have to walk for some distance from where the cars drop you in order to reach the falls. I was grateful for that. It wasn't raining for a change though the sky was laden with some dark clouds. It wasn't crowded here but it wasn't deserted either - all about me I could see tourists in small groups chatting their way to falls. It was so refreshing to look at the green landscape that I hardly noticed that I was climbing uphill at places. When I reached the top I saw that the waterfall was really tiny but the surrounding area was very scenic. There were lots of rocks about and the lake beyond. On one side you could see a dense clump of trees bordering the lake. And it was very quiet - save the twitter of an occasional bird in the bush. I took photo after photo - trying my best to capture the scene. Then it started drizzling again.

On my way back I didn't have much reason to stop at the broken down house where a woman collected money for the ticket. But stop I did. The house must have been spacious once but now was in a very sorry state with its roof gone and walls as well as floor crumbling about. It's always so sad to look at an abandoned house. And this one looked sadder because it was in the midst of so much of natural beauty. I wondered who it belonged to and why was it abandoned. I looked at the 2 small children who were busy piling on logs to keep the fire going in one corner. They must be of the lady selling tickets. Maybe their presence there reminded the house of its long-forgotten days?

My second last stop for the day was Pykara lake. But I was in no luck here. The rain which was following me like a pup all around Ooty was still with me when I reached the lake. I should have guessed there was bad news from the disappointed faces of the tourists nearby. But hoping against hope I enquired about boating. The guy selling tickets for the same told me apologetically that the lake was overflowing and they would not rent the boats till it stopped raining because there was a strong wind. I cast a long hungry look at the lake - it had a faraway haunted look about it. The whole atmosphere had a kind of a greenish grayish tinge due to the drizzle. I took snaps and went to a small hotel nearby to kill time as well as to have a cuppa hot tea.

But as soon as I stepped in I regretted my decision. A strong smell of fried fish came wafting out. I do eat non-veg and am not averse to fried fish myself. But the smell was too strong and had a sort of oily undercurrent to it. It didn't help matters when through the open door I caught sight of their disorderly kitchen where a couple of guys were laboring over stoves. I wanted to turn back. But I needed tea - only to console myself that it wouldn't be end of the world if I could not do boating in the lake. So I sat there and ordered tea. I was sure that I will have 2 sips and get out. But the tea was good - with a strong cardamom flavor which seems to be the specialty of the region. I drank it to the very last drop as I sat watching them prepare the large meal that a group - probably fishermen - sitting in a corner nearby had ordered.

Things hadn't changed much when I stepped out of the hotel. The rain was still with us and most of the tourists who like me had waited hopefully for it to subside were very reluctantly turning back towards their cars. I looked at the lake again. Dare I say I will be back one day? How strange is life that so often gives us but one chance to see some places? We do sometimes manage to get back for a second visit but 9 times out of 10 we find the place changed - sometimes even in a relatively short span of say, 6 months. And then we wish we hadn't come back again. :-(

It was with such slightly philosophical thoughts that I started for my last destination for the day. It was supposed to be a scenic point - the kind you have in places like Matheran and Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra. The car stopped at the foot of a hillock and I climbed my way up. The view from above was breathtaking. All around me I could see hills and trees. The sky at the far horizon seemed laden with rain-bearing clouds. A small cluster of houses was visible in the distance along with a small road threading its way past them. I saw a jeep slowing making its way across the road. A patch of water could be seen shimmering in the distance. I wasn't sure whether it was Ooty lake. I felt as if the whole of my trip could be condensed in this one moment. I could have stayed there forever. But the sad fact was that I needed to get back.

I sat looking through all the photos I had taken during the day as the car started on its journey back to the resort. The rain had certainly played spoilsport - wet blanker is a more befitting term I guess - but I had still managed to visit beautiful places and capture magical moments. And to be fair, the distant horizon flecked with rainy clouds had provided a special magical poetic frame to every photo I had taken. But don't tell this to the rain God. He might decide to come and visit me again tomorrow :-(

Navy hoists tricolour at North Pole

Amid the headlines of the inflation scaling new heights and the Quota verdict by the Supreme Court, many Indians might have missed this proud moment brought about by their Navy:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Navy_hoists_tricolour_at_North_Pole/articleshow/2942663.cms

Three cheers for the Men in White! Way to go guys!