Fluid Verve

To Kodaikanal

In 14th century, villagers of Palani foot hills fled to Kodai hills, to escape from their oppressive rulers and the invasion of Tipu Sultan. Later around 1845, American missionaries rediscovered Kodaikanal to seek refugee from the heat of Tamil Nadu and led to the development of Kodai as a popular hill station in South India. Recently I also fled to Kodaikanal for a year-end family vacation.

We took a flight from Delhi to Coimbatore and the rest of the journey was to be made on road via Palani. Once in Coimbatore, numerous hoardings of a Shreedevi Textiles showcasing vivid silk saris were the first to catch my attention besides the traffic jams that were threatening to delay us for our bus to Palani. Somehow we managed to catch the bus but it was almost full. I had to settle for a seat away from my sister. I had an old woman and her daughter as my companions for the four hour ride across the heat and dusty roads and a T.V. showing an apparently popular Tamil movie as the only source of distraction. Unexpectedly it turned out to be quite a memorable ride as I realized that I could almost follow the movie even though I didn’t understand the language (Anyway, I couldn’t have heard the dialogues over the rattling noise in the bus) and as the old lady next to me got chatty.

But of course I couldn’t make any sense of the old lady’s curious questions till her daughter, Muthu, started translating her queries for me using her limited knowledge of English. Muthu turned out to be a sweet girl, perhaps about fifteen years old. Through her I communicated my travel plans, clarified that I was with my Akka (sister), and explained why I wasn’t wearing a yellow thread around my neck and a bindi on my forehead… “Ille-Ille!” I remarked.

After a bit more of partially understood Smalltalk I dozed off only to be woken in a few minutes by Muthu’s humble “Excuse-me”. She was holding an old black & white hand phone and wanted to show me something. It was a picture SMS message that read “Happy New Year”. Her cute gesture made me smile and I thanked her heartily and wished her the same. Strangely Muthu’s bout of cute generosity was followed by shy embarrassment and she said “Sorry for disturbance!”

After a bit more of chit-chat I shifted my attention to the scenery that we were passing by. I guessed that we must be reaching the Palani foothills as I saw the wide open plains often loaded with windmills and hills came into view. Soon I saw a massive temple built on a hilltop; it had to be the famous Lord Murugan temple of Palani.

We reached the bus station from where we had to board another bus to Kodaikanal. Yet again we were flustered to see that none of the buses had any information written in English. It was an unwelcome sign that spoke of the closed attitude of Tamil Nadu administration towards people from outside. We had to struggle a bit with the unfriendly conductors to find the right bus and it turned out that the bus wouldn’t arrive till an hour. It was early evening and the delay meant that we will miss some of the sights along the way. We had no option but to kill time eating Murukkus and Vadas and drinking tea made in quaint ovens.

It wasn’t a comfortable bus and the only solace was the beauty of the uphill climb and occasional waterfalls. The massive Lord Murugan temple could still be seen even an hour after leaving Palani. We were bored of the long day of traveling. In an effort to make the journey a bit more pleasant I plugged in my mp3 player but I guess it wasn’t meant to be that way. Soon the driver switched on the music system and the blaring music that resulted started jamming with the soft rock in my ears. They were tuned into a local music station and it turned out to be none other than Radio Mirchi! Needless to say, the mp3 player gave in and was packed back into my bag.

We reached Kodaikanal much after sunset and were left with just enough energy to look for our hotel, eat, and retire to sleep.