Queen of Hill-stations

Ooty is sometimes called as the “Queen of Hill-stations”

Here are pictures of some of the attractions of Ooty.

Doddabetta Peak, at 2637 metres, is the highest mountain in the Nilgiris, as well as whole of South India. At the top of the peak is a Telescope House from where one can see entire Ooty town. Below are pictures of Ooty town as seen from the peak.

The Ooty Government Botanical Gardens are situated close to Ooty Town. The 22-acre garden was initially built to study flora in the Nilgiri Hills and was later opened to public.

It houses a variety of flowering plants, medicinal plants and one of its attractions is a 20 million year old fossilized tree.

Pykara Falls are the largest and last two falls of a series of cascades on the Pykara River, the largest river in Nilgiris District. The river is sacred to the local tribe known as the Todas. A dam and power plant harness hydropower from the river.

Pine forest, also known as “Shooting Spot” is a hill with a gentle ascent. One can see breathtaking views of the neighbouring hills from the top.

Coonoor is another town in the Nilgiris, home to the Nilgiri Tea. Vast areas of Coonoor are dedicated to tea plantations. The tea estates allow tourists to walk in, see the workers at work, tour the tea factory, and sample some of their delicious flavoured teas.

Coonoor is also home to the regimental headquarters of the Madras Regiment of the Indian Army, and the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) in Wellington Cantonment. Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw was the most famous resident of this place. He was one of only two Indian military officers to hold the highest rank of Field Marshal in the Indian Army (the other being Field Marshal K M Cariappa).

Other attractions in Coonoor are Sim’s Park – a botanical garden which houses more than a thousand plant species, and the Pasteur Institute – which produces DPT vaccine and vaccines against Rabies. 

The best Rose Garden in the World

I went to Ooty with my college batchmates in March 2009. It was a week-long trip where we travelled from Pondicherry to Ooty, via Coonoor. Coonoor and Ooty are hill-stations in the Nilgiri hills, in Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu.

Ooty is short for Ootacamund, and is also known as Udagamandalam in Tamil. It’s a picturesque town with a cooler climate than the neighbouring plains.

Ooty boasts of a remarkable range of flora because of the suitable climate. This combination draws a large number of tourists to Ooty and it is regarded as “The Queen of Hill-stations.”

Popular attractions in Ooty are the Government Botanical Park, the Rose Garden, Charing Cross in the middle of Ooty town, Pykara Falls, Doddabetta Peak – the tallest hill in South India, the Ooty Lake, Pine Forest – where Tamil movies are sometimes shot at,  the tea plantations, and the Nilgiri Mountain Railways.

The Government Rose Garden, sometimes also known as the Centenary Rose Park, is situated at a walking distance from the town. It boasts of itself as “The Best Rose Park in the World”. It won the The World Federation of Rose Societies “Garden of Excellence Award” for being the best rose garden in South Asia, in May 2006, in Osaka, Japan.

It has the largest collection of rose varieties in India with 20,000 different varieties of hybrid and miniature roses, and roses in unusual colours such as black and green.

On Bottomlines...

The Lecture Theatres of JIPMER, the behemoth edifice painted in red on the sides, with the JIPMER Logo (Veritas Curat ~ Truth Cures) in front, cast a very good impression on anyone new around here. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t impressed with the building when I saw it for the first time (in later years I would go on to christen it “The Sleeping Tower of JIPMER” for that’s what I did in there 90% of the time).

We all remember the times spent in the Lecture Theatres – the darkness, the whirring of the air conditioners, the cool air, the projectors, the wooden desks carved with ‘words of wisdom’, the long wait before the hour ended, the lectures themselves, the dozing off in between, and of course our Professors who took so much trouble to prepare them.

There are many differences between a good lecture and a great one – one of the most important ones being a fantastic ‘one-liner’ which sums up the topic at hand. It is an added bonus that these one-line quips turn out to be invariably hilarious, much to the audience’s delight.

Here are a few which I was fortunate enough to hear in the lectures that I did attend (and in whom I managed to stay awake).  No points for guessing from whom these gems came from.

The Lecture Theatres, JIPMER

1. On why cryptorchidism leads to infertility, “The Scrotum is the Ooty of the body.”
2. On young and enthusiastic doctors, “A young man knows all the rules; an old man knows all the exceptions.”
3. When a student gave an answer totally out of context to the question, “You don’t know the answer to my question and the question to your answer.”
4. On students entering the lecture theatres fifteen minutes after the lecture had began, “Late-comers are like undescended testes; they don’t come on time, and even if they do come they bring so many problems along with them.”
5. On the blatant disregard shown by students to their studies, “What I’m concerned about is your unconcern.”
6. On a student’s habitual absenteeism from lectures, “You should be regularly regular to class, not regularly irregular or irregularly regular.”
7. On the importance of first-aid vis-à-vis the importance in reaching a diagnosis, “A living problem is better than a dead certainty.”
8. The rule of trauma care from an Orthopedician’s perspective, “First life, then limb.”
9. On obesity and diabetes mellitus, “The life span of a person is inversely proportional to the length of their belt.”
10. When a student took his own sweet time to answer in Viva Voce, “On Given time everybody will answer, some in 6 seconds, some in 6 minutes, some in 6 hours and some in 6 months.”
11. On bleeders, “A good surgeon is not one who doesn’t cut a vessel, it is one who knows he has cut a vessel.”
12. On post-operative care after Gastrointestinal surgery, in particular to enquire whether the patient has passed flatus, “Sounds that may shock the common man are music to the ears of the surgeon.”
13. On complications of hydrocele, “A hydrocele will not rupture even if you jump on it; and it is not a cosmetic problem unless the man is a male stripper.”
14. On the nuances of history-taking, “The patient will not read your books and come to you with the symptoms you know; you have to listen to him/her and derive the symptoms you’re looking for.”
15. On the practice of Obstetrics, “Obstetrics was there before Obstetricians came along.”

To my Professors, this shows I have been paying attention to your Lectures (in between my naps). 

My love affair with Paro Dzong

Before I moved to Thimphu I lived in Paro. It holds a special place in my heart; I started my life there. In my half decade-long stay there, I absolutely fell in love with the place. It was heartbreaking for my nine year old self when I had to leave Paro and my whole life as I knew it then.

I had a cousin about my age who used to stay with us, and we were in the same class in school. He was my partner in crime.

Even as five year olds, we’d be all over the place, exploring new spaces to hang out. We’d walk along the fields, swim in the rainwater lakes, look for baby fish in the river, cycle on the dirt roads, build sand-castles at a secluded sandy bank we’d discovered, and many more such outdoor adventures.

I sorely missed the outdoor life when I moved to Thimphu. Learning to live in a place full of buildings was a challenge in itself.

From whichever place we’d hang out in Paro, the Dzong was always visible. That’s why, even now when I think of Paro the first sight that comes to my mind is the Dzong.

I changed two schools in Paro; the latter was called Rinpung Primary School. It was near town, on the way to the Paro Dzong. We had to cross the wooden cantilever bridge at Nemey Zampa to reach the school.

Some part of the Dzong was always visible from the school. It was as if the Dzong was watching us as we walked to school and back, a majestic and benevolent gaze down at us tiny kids. It was a very comforting and humbling experience.

There was this orchard just below the Dzong where there were pear and walnut trees. It was a favourite place for students to have lunch. The fruit trees were also really popular with the students. A stone thrown into the pear tree would result in a rain of small pears, locally known as “Lli”. As smaller boys of the pack, we would be the ones who’d fumble for the fallen pears rather than throw stones at the tree; our throw just wouldn’t reach and our aim was rather bad.

And every once in a while someone would should, “Ap Dorji honh dey” (Ap Dorji is coming) and we’d scatter in all directions. Now I’m not so sure Ap Dorji ever came chasing us, or if he was the caretaker, or if he existed at all.

Dzongs were built on vantage points overlooking the entire valley. It was their purpose to keep a watch over everything around them. Paro Dzong watched me grow up, and I grew up under its comforting presence.

Picture This!

I can't believe I haven't written here since February! How I let 5 months pass by, I have no idea; but to make up for lost time, here I am, back again.

I don't have anything in particular I want to write about. I just want to post a couple of pictures here today. I've been dabbling in photography at an amateur level for a couple of years now, and for the past couple of months I've been fiddling with Adobe Photoshop too.

These pictures are from my personal collection, uploaded here after some editing in Photoshop.

I hope to upload more pictures accompanied by stories in the days to come.