( David Lean was an Hollywood Legends giving us such epic movies likeThe Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. These movies were run to packed houses in Assembly Room. So when Lean chose to shoot some of his shots for his Passage to India inRead More →
( Imagine you have fought taken part in World War I and II and taken a prisoner of war and waiting for death. What would you write down? You Will ? Letter to your loved ones? Or your war tales? This forest officer of Nilgiris wrote about Working Plans forRead More →
(Krupabai Sattiyanadhan was a Hindu converted to Christianity before birth. She started a school for Muslims which is still running in Kandhal, Ooty. She was a doctor and a novelist who was the one of the earliest to write about women’s liberation. Her husband was the first India Headmaster ofRead More →
(Ten years after independence in 1958 a classic Hollywood movie was shot in Mudumalai and Masinagudi areas with an English actor in the lead and three Indians in the cast. ‘Harry Black and the Tiger’ was based on a famous novel about a former British Army Major, Harry Black, coming Read More →
(In 1841 just before his departure for good from India, John Sullivan wrote to Mr. Brunton, Engineer of the Porto Novo Iron Works whether the copious Nilgiri waters can be tapped for power generation to develop the Coimbatore district. After visiting Nilgiris, Mr. Brunton reported, ‘that all the waterfalls he hadRead More →
(A contemporary of architect Chisholm, engineer Major Morant’s legacy in the Nilgiris is unparalleled. He was undoubtedly the Father of Nilgiri Mountain Railway. The roads, utilities and buildings he constructed still serve as proud lifelines for the district) Major and Brevet Liuet-Colonel James Law Lushington Morant of the Royal EngineersRead More →
( The iconic Nilgiri Library building and the Lawrence School main building, apart from many others which continue to add colonial grandeur to the Nilgiris were built by the renowned architect Chisholm who is more famous for the designing most of the colonial buildings in Chennai including the Presidency CollegeRead More →
(Not many know that the great Tamil Sage-Philosopher Tiru Valluvar was widely read, appreciated and emulated by many of the servants of the East India Company. One such was Nathaniel Edward Kindersley, the father of Nathaniel William Kindersley, one of the two Assistant Surveyors who visited the Nilgiris in 1818Read More →
Badagas love the word ‘Sege’ (warmth). But during February – April the warmth keeps growing and become intense heat. So this period is called Be:sege (Growing warmth). The heat will burn down the grass and the buffalos (the only wealth of the Badagas originally) will be starved. To overcome thisRead More →
Ever since Sullivan opened up Nilgiris, the Colonial governors had half a mind to shift the capital from Madras to Ooty. In 1828 Governor Elphinstone came for a short stay and prolonged his stay for eight months on one excuse or the other. When Shimla was made the Summer CapitalRead More →
(Interestingly, roads were named after British Governors in Madras before 1870 when the Governor’s Secretariat moved to Ooty for nearly eight months in a year. Since then roads were named after Governors in Ooty. Hence Wenlock, Connemara etc roads. Governor Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff had a road and a hillRead More →
(If all Badagas could dance, most Badagas can sing. But there have been only a few Balladeers. These Bards composed, improvised and entertained and educated the community about the epic songs and stories handed down over generations orally. The Bards could easily carry on their narration for hours, even throughRead More →
(It seems this summer Nilgirians have to satisfy themselves more by reading than seeing the myriad flowers in bloom. In 1944 one Torfrida (nick name ?) and May Dart (who sketched) brought out a slim volume on Nilgiri wild flowers titled, “Nurseries of Heavan- Wild Flowers of India. The introductionRead More →
(Some of you may have read in school or college Lord Macaulay’s poems called Lays of Ancient Rome which recount heroic episodes from early Roman history. But not many of us know that many of these poems were written in Ooty. As Macaulay says, ‘The plan occurred to me inRead More →