(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 →
( Recalling the history of brewing on the hills as we wait out the lock-down with the uncertainty of getting our daily sip !!!) When the British opened up the Nilgiris in 1820 what struck them as most unusual was that the native people, though semi-naked in the biting cold, neverRead More →
(Hope the Good Friday prayers assuage the Corona demon and mitigate its impact in the coming days. Beliefs, practices, religions and faith are different things though there may be many commonalities among them as ultimately all have the same goal. The practice of Scapegoat – transferring the sins of theRead More →
(Potato is said to be in high demand in these times of lock down. No wonder !! We all know that it was Collector Sullivan who introduced, among other things, potato to the Nilgiris with the assistance of an English soldier-farmer, Johnstone, and an African assistant, Jones. The first harvestRead More →
Known as Nai kadi Aspathiri in Tamil (dog-bite Hospital), the Pasteur Institute of Southern India, Coonoor, was the venue of the first International Rabies Conference in 1952. It is here that the anti-rabies vaccine, which saves the lives of nearly 24,000 persons in a year is manufactured under the leadershipRead More →
(No matter how many it will finally kill or damage, Corona is bound to rewrite existing world order. Spearheading an alternative based on the Gandhian principles of Truth, Freedom and Health is a Dalit from Tamil Nadu in USA. Dr. Appadurai Shiva, a multi-expert and multi-tasking technocrat is taking headRead More →
April has been an eventful month in the history of Nilgiris. The first ever written record of Nilgiris by Father Finicio, an Italian pastor who came from Calicut to investigate the possible Christian links to the Todas, was dated April 1, 1603. St. Stephen’s church, the oldest landmark of Ooty,Read More →
Ever wondered what made Sullivan fixated on Nilgiris.Read More →
(Sir Thomas Munro gave to South India its Revenue and Police administration and its Educational system. Very few of us remember him and many are ungrateful by choice. It was also Governor Munro who made the Nilgiris a Health Resort. Ironically, as fate would have it, he died within aRead More →
(“From China to Peru” was an old phrase meaning from one end of the world to another. The vastness of the world was beyond most human beings except for a few Great Explorers who dared to venture into the unknown with a sense of adventurism and a noble purpose ofRead More →
Photogravure of Macaulay by Antoine ClaudeRead More →
(After the departure of the pioneer-stalwarts like Sullivan and Lushington, the progress of Nilgiris would have languished but for the enthusiasm and active contribution of some of the newly settled Europeans. Among them the name of Dr.Baikie stands first. Dr. Baikie was among the first medical professionals to come toRead More →
A Doctor who laid the Nilgiri Telegraph Line (Governor General of India Lord Dalhousie was confined to the Nilgiris for nearly nine months in 1855 on health grounds. He had to attend to several important things, not least of them being the planning of the great Indian railway. He badlyRead More →