I was in Ooty after 17yrs

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Its been my very long dream to visit Ooty since i saw a movie shot in ooty. (Movie: Geetanjali (1989) directed by mani Ratnam) That movie ran for almost 2yrs in 3different languages in South India and became a cult for youngster. So deeply inspired, the foggy scenes of the mountains and the haunting love story with twist with the hero taking a retreat to ooty after a road accident and discovering a fatal cancer. The dejected Hero numbering his last daysmeets a girl and falls in love with that girl and only to know that she too is a cancer patient on the death roll. And the climax...I heared the movie was shot in the 'Keti' area. It was so touching movie to see at the age of 12 when i have never imagined how Ooty or any other Hill station would look as i was living in the hot and humid chennai city. Ofcourse we had studied about the Alps and himalays on books but never ever experienced the cold or beauty in real.

After inspiring the movie i had a chance to go to ooty in 1990 when i was 13. Hmm..did i see the same ooty..no..cmon,,,it was totally different..heavry traffic, population and pollution..oh cmon i said where is the ooty i saw in the movie. Then they said its' Keti' a not so inhabitated place very close to ooty. but i said not believe those movie guys or photographers anymore. But to my surprise i am into commercial photography now. Ok lets come to the story.

So did i go to Keti.? No...bcos the tour couldnt allow us to anywhere bcos we had to go to Mysore and banglore. So ok it was 1990. Lets get back to the future.

2007: finally the 17yrs old dream came true. we are going to ooty. Ofcourse the travel was good from Chennai to Salem to Avinasi to Mettupalayam to Ooty. Wow its so cold to enter ooty. I had been in Kodaikanal couple of years back for a year. but kodai hills are not so sweepy and big. It was like hiils not mountains. I couldnt see largescape of green mountains in kodai so i wanted to go to ooty for that sake and r i know the climate and food will be like kodai. And i did see some exicting ranges of mountain scape. But did i capture on my Canon 20d which i was desparate to and to add collection to my stock photography sales at getty image?.

No not much. I mean i couldnt get any pro quality images. As i had to look for a room to stay as it was peak season in April, May and June. The whole India would come to release of the heat at Ooty during the summer. Some small shopping with family. I also wanted to visit renowned Photographer Iqbal Mohamed's Photography Institute Light and Life academy. One of the best, finest photography schools in Asia and the first of its kind in India. Its rated close to the quality of brooklyn Institue of photography in America. I met Iqbal (who is an alumini of Brooklyns) couple of times and he had invited me to the institute..I thought of atleast visiting it as I couldnt study photography there.

So did i visit Light & Life Academy in Lovedale Ooty.? No...

The first day was room hunting and we got a room in a decent and good Hotel Durga Bhavan for Rs.900 double bed (peak season rate) at Charing Cross, Ooty and suddendly rain started to pour. So i thought of getting some sleep to get rid of travel tiredness and to catch up early next day on the photography. i slept and woke in evening and went to get some dinner and the news was waiting for me...

WHAT NEWS???
Sudden smoke in the mountains and tress started to fall...suspected seismic activity or lava. Its the rumor to be correct. Well few years ago after the tsunami 2004 there were some geographical findings that Ooty range will be prone to some seismic activity in the future. So we planned to move from Ooty early next morning.

In morning the after a big discussion we planned to stay at ooty and again another news came that a big boulder fell in the road and obstructed the path to Conoor and the route was diverted through Kotagiri.

So we packed from Ooty, after having the ever safe vegetarian meals for 2days, my family wanted to try something hot and non veggy in the to heat up ooty cold. So i tried to find some good biryani shop but coudnt as all non veg eat outs look cheapish. Finnally out of desperation i found a small nonveg hotel with a muslim 'halal' sign, thinking the meat might be safe and clean. But after i ordered the food i found out the cooks were not muslim and the meats are not really 'halal' and the food was chill and tasted uncooked. The result of this unhalal food was found the next day with an stomach upset. I always prefer veg foods or if i am too desperate for a non veg i look for the hotel with "halal" sign, But kindly double check as people can just buy a halal sticker or paint it in the boards without proper halal treatment.

Post lunch we were downhill to chennai but just 25kms off ooty there was kotagiri full of tea plantations and serene beauty. But it had no infrastructure like ooty. You can find very few good hotels and eatouts. But its good for a silent retreat from the city buzz. We found small or the only good lodging "Hotel Kasturi" and rented a Rs.900/- room though not as fine or class as the ooty Durga Bhavan room, but it is the only available option for lodging so its costly. As the restaurant attached to the lodging closed down at 8pm i had to go deep into the town for food and went to bed. This place had fans on the ceiling and lots house flies, both could not be found in ooty,

The next morning i had a terrible stomach pain and I was hit by food poisoning of which i couldnt move from the bed for the whole day due to the stale food i had back in ooty. I had some tablets in my photography bag which i had to use. Next day after visitng a small park in the morning and catherine water falls...but no water to be seen..we drove back home...to Chennai. My tour was cut short due to the strange activity in ooty as well as i had some important assignent at office.

Ahmed

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Comments

[Linga Technologies]

hi,,its really a nice blog!