Seventy years ago almost to his day on December 13, 1950 a Douglas DC-3/C-47 Dakota VT-CFK of Air India crashed near Kil Kotagiri in the Nilgiris killing all 17 passengers and 4 crew. A military search party found the wreckage a whole week after the accident on Dec 19 inRead More →
Guru Nanak Dev Ji (1469-1539) is the first of the 10 Gurus and Founder of the Sikh faith. At the age of 30, Guru Nanak left home to travel and spread his message of Ik Onkar or One God and took upon himself to enlighten people of the word of the real God. He traveled widely withinRead More →
(Sir Thomas Munro gave to South India its now famous Revenue, Police and Educational administration. Very few of us remember him and many are ungrateful by choice. It was also Governor Munro who officially declared the Nilgiris a Health Resort on the very fateful day he died of cholera atRead More →
Who is stronger ? Bengali or Madarasi Soldier ? A June Ooty bet in 1835 !!! In June 1835 Governor General William Bentinck was in Ooty recuperating. Sir Frederick Adam, the Governor or Madras and Lord Macaulay were with him. Bentinck was staying in the present Ooty Club. Once, probablyRead More →
Gandhiji’s Nilgiri connections started in 1914 even before he was bestowed, for the first time, the title of Mahatma by a journalist in 1916. Gandhiji returned from his eventful stay in South Afraica to India in 1914 and stayed in Tagore’s Santhiniketan. He first had a glimpse of Nilgiris throughRead More →
Ooty Centenary (June 1, 1923) Ootacamund June 1. The following is the reply of H.E the Governor ( Lord Willingdon, who later became the Governor General of Canada) to the address presented by the Hill tribes. Members of the Hill tribes of Nilgiris, I thank you for your interesting addressRead More →
The reputation of the Nilgiris as a sacred mountain has been recorded in history. According to legend in the 18th century one glance at the Nilgiris hills would suffice to cleanse a man of all his sins. It was said to be the belief of the people in the surrounding plainsRead More →
144 years ago, this day, the Viceroy of India, Lord Lytton arrived in Ooty at 5.30 pm. Elaborated arrangements were made from the morning. A Triumphal Arch was erected at Charing Cross to welcome him. This was the first visit by a Viceroy of India. The entire European population ofRead More →
Ooty has more than one connection with Afghanistan dating back from as early as 1855. In that year a treaty was signed between the East India Company and His Highness Ameer Dost Mohummud Khan, Walee of Cabool to “respect the territories of the Honorable East India Company and never toRead More →
(Indian Medical Service began soon after the birth of East India Company in 1600. Surgeons were first appointed in ships carrying men and material to India. By 1614 a Surgeon General was appointed. The Bengal Medical Service was set up in 1763 followed by similar services in Bombay and MadrasRead More →
(The American Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865 between the Northern States and the Southern States mainly over slavery of the blacks. Ooty locals will remember the many wonderful westerns staring John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Robert Mitcham etc on the civil war stories – especially, the climax withRead More →
(Kalhada is a small Badaga village off Jakanarai on the Kotagiri-Mettupalayam road. A Plaque “ To the Memory of Kadhir Khan My Faithfull Peon by Hastings Fraser” has been found there since many years. Several stories are made of this. Sometime back, a house was built on the site butRead More →
(The dead deserve a proper funeral. But many times a proper funeral is not possible immediately for reasons of wars, natural disasters, epidemics and so on when the bodies have to be disposed of unceremoniously out of necessity. Still they can be given the honour due to them in goodRead More →
(How Nilgiris got its name has many speculations- from the bluish Kurinji flower, from the Blue-gum trees and so on, But the sources of the name according to legends is more fascinating) Abbe Dubois, the French writer who travelled in southern India in 1792-1823 says in his book, ‘Hindu Manners,Read More →