Jack & Jill yet again to the hills…
Due to ‘Monday Blues’ on friday morning,Mr. Jack calls up as soon as he reaches office,’ let’s do Mysore over weekend.On sat,at Mysore… lets do the Bandipur safari.On sunday at Bandipur …why not drive till Ooty ( hill station near Bangalore)
Driving to Ooty from Bangalore
At Derby Green Ooty,why one? lets stay for two nights 🙂
Unknown to our adventure, people were amazed ………….’ Spaghetti top in ooty cold !!
For a day I was like the Indian heroine who never feels cold even in the snow.Unfortunately my hero didn’t even have the coat to pass it on to me and so we had to rush to ‘Mohans’ ,the most advertised shop in Ooty, to buy some acceptable hill station clothing.Most advertised doesn’t mean most admired but anyways…it served the purpose.
Right now am sitting on a bench ,sipping my coffee and thinking (my all time fav job)…… Mysore.,Ooty the nth time 🙂
Thats one advantage of staying in Bangalore.Mysore is just 2.5 hrs away and one can reach hill stations like Ooty at whim.
Stopover at Metropole for lunch and Lalitha mahal palace-Mysore for a quite evening dinner to do the quarterly review and feedback session on married life can be surprisingly elevating.
And ofcourse icing on the cake is Mysore to Ooty drive because of Bandipur & Mudumalai forests on the way. It really arouses the junglee in me. Infact in my childhood list of ,’ I WANT TO BE’, forest officer would be on top despite my fear of jungle ghosts.
Till date i’ve been able to spot only deers,sambhars,peacocks,monkeys and my saathi ‘the haathi’ in the name of wild life in these forests, but i do hope to face tiger someday ……much more appealing than going on a date with Abhay Deol ,recent inclusion in the list of my likes on facebook
When it comes to hill stations , it is the OOTY where am well known from Charring cross to Pykara lake :-)Think,there is an advantage in repetition.When one leafs through the albums to compare notes, the increase in the waist diamater,the changes in the expressions and the additions to the party give an excellent review of life.Each trip brings a new set of memories
Infact my first trip to Ooty was around the time the horror movie ‘Raaz’ on marital discord had come out.Ironically in this trip I received the blessings for a happy married life by an old couple after conforming to their request for a lovey dovey picture.
Another memorable trip with friends was in Dec cold.10pm ,dark woods and Yummy chicken ,one of the tastiest dinner !! I was in the company of gourmets.But courtsey the focus of the team, my 31st night was spent driving through Ooty lanes in search of some chinese restaurant, when all I wanted to do was party at the hotel and dance all night.At the end, we all settled for dinner at Taj where we did some clicking and as they say ‘ the circle of life’ !!…. I ended up having a similar pic with Mr. Jack, as the one I had taken for the old couple a few years back.
Hmmmm!! this monsoon trip is special too…
Mr. Jack had the first 36 hairpin bends of his life, this time.
Secondly, its my son’s first time in Ooty who has cold and fever but not going to school and singing ‘swity swity tera pyaar chahida’ with the system has been the motivation enough to carry on.
Ooty like hill stations do inspire me to indulge into their flavour,though I’m a person with no tea-no coffee tagline .In south, most hill stations are either tea stations or coffee stations.
Besides, there are Ghost stories, scenic spots ,the toy trains made famous by our film industry and lots of woollens ,facepacks,oils etc which attract the shopaholic in women irrespective of the metro they come from.
Hill stations in south India
Downsouth other than Ooty I have been to Munnar,Thekkady,Madikeri,Yercaud ,kemengundi & Kodaikanal .
Munnar and kemengundi are still commercially virgin.To the extent that I almost had my nirvana experience in nature at kemengundi for the homestay we had chosen, in middle of deep forests called nature nirvana .
Somehow we had reached that secluded world but on the way back, the budding adventurer & the romantic in me had almost died as our only jeep ran out of fuel and the driver left Jack and Jill in the middle of the ghostly jungle just around the sunset to go back and get some petrol.No other vehicle was to be seen even at miles distance till 2-3 hrs. Would always be indebted to that 5 pax capacity vehicle carrying more than 10 people to give us lift too. Luckily we reached the civilization that night.
Hmmmmm …if I don’t stop here my list of such events will go on as one may not remember what one ate last night but anything beyond routine and monotony is delicious enough for quick retrieval..
And honestly speaking,despite these lovely mishaps here and there, going back from these green jungles to our concrete jungle where undo & redo work is always on,seems very spiritual.I can’t help living in these times forever.
Planning for northern hills around october this year and I do hope to have a lovely uphill journey with the Papa Jack and the baby Jack .:-)…… Excited ..!!
