Clouds and Gardens

There was darkness everywhere where ever I walked ,though it wasn’t my worst nightmare but no doubt “The Indian power cut”rituals from the state electricity board. Soon my vacation turned out to be a wild mountain chase .That very night I found out that I was not alone in the darkness ,actually I lost my way from my family members far away shopping in the market place. The chase began immediately after I lost my way in the darkness, it wasn’t one or two competitors but the whole canine unit of dozen were ready and where gaining on me every second that I ran. I ran like a bunny afraid from hunting hounds in the darkness with no idea about where I am running towards. But the more I ran the more they gathered in speed ,there was no sign of any human burrow any human at all which could have stopped my living nightmare in darkness.Eventually I won the chase and finally lost sight of my chasers nor heard their losing howls in the darkness, yes victory in darkness now I can  smile and say but definitely not at the very moment. This was decades back in the mountain of Kodaikanal.

 

here I am sitting in the passenger seat of my friends car waiting for “GOD” to clear traffic after a decade I out maneuvered the “DOG” s in the same mountain. The traffic snarl was caused by the very own “God” they were celebrating Ganesh puja looked as though we took a wrong detour to Karol bagh (New Delhi).Because for me Ganesh puja was already a finished affair back down in my city below the mountains in the far southern part of India.(Ganesh Chaturthi is a one day festivity in South Tamilnadu) I was amused at the possession and their hindutva clan doing the rounds with “GOD”. well that’s that ! We later took a real detour to cross a mere 50 so meters. Including my friends and me ,we where visiting the mountain after a gap of decade, it was altogether a very different “Kodaikanal”.With its improved infrastructure and new retail outlets both international as well as local chains. The town resembled a mini metro with its packed vehicle moments and exploited environments. And they said it was off-season we didn’t have to imagine about the most preferred season by the tourists. At every turn we were up against the tourists from our friendly neighboring states which refuses to give river water to ours, we where venting our anger through war of words at every opportunity in the traffic congestion, saying at least give way for us (instead of water)to move on swiftly. Comparatively more shops all over the town and shrinking space for livelihood for the locals heard from one my friend residing there the recent hype by real estate ventures(lot of real estate ads) has sky rocketed prices even beyond the heights of the mountain resulting in huge sale of lands and properties for commercial activities in the name of tourism. Every space out there has been grown into some kind of shop or mountain resorts and private inns. Off course the main income is through tourism but not at the cost of exploiting the very natural wealth that attracts tourism in the first place. Apart from the restaurant s and the regular market shops you can find here, there are many shops lookalike that have landed from the gulf selling multiple merchandise s .they are actually from the neighboring Kerala with their fonts in their regional language as well as middle east(bang on you can spot them),what kind of target audience would they be aiming for? I wonder. I find these developments in a period of a decade as very consumer oriented and less towards a decent spot for recreation and leisure for the tourist community.Moreover the clean environment there has been completely dumped like a lost love. There used to be days you can walk around with mist and the lush green tree s around it. Now the mis(sed)t is substituted by combusted co2 from automobile emissions ,you miss the spot by cough. I don’t know whether they have any control on the vehicle moments ,it was my first visit here via a car! Though some of the inner parts of the mountain are still intact as they were in the past clean and natural. They have an organized Bus terminus which caters the common commuters of the town. Minus the encroaching shops ,there is lot of things that remain the same way as they where a decade ago. you can find better places to stay according to your requirements and affordability. But it still needs a proper plan for commercial establishments in the town. You can find quite lot of everything from the fake Chinese tooth brushes to the anti Chinese Tibetean restaurants with Indian flags on them. The Kodaikanal refurbished as a new established town poses as a liberalized settlement with multi ethnic and multi religious globalised (I am out of words) mountain range for every tourist who climbs the mountain to witness this beauty atop touching clouds and gardens .

Note : Clouds and Gardens is the name of the place I stayed. and watch out for the big Private resort when you enter the mountain at downhill spot.

Forget the hilltops and their cuisine there do please check out the Tibetean Momos (The Royal Tibetean) and Home Made Chocolates near the bus terminus (Farrukh s I think).

And most importantly walk your way through the beautiful mountain areas to get the true feel of the place. And do visit Dolphin Nose.

Angry Birds

The Raven

Well everybody would have had their chances to play the popular game “The Angry Birds” in various platforms like mobile,on line or game consoles. Where the  angry birds kill the pig “Bang” on target ,well I am no exception from this popular game.Actually I am in a sort of in anger mode even after i quit the game(well i couldn’t kill the pigs in a certain stage)well that’s that! no regrets just a game.Well what about the birds in the real world,well what about them? you might wonder, well even while your playing the game in your mobile killing the pigs in game scenario ,your actually killing the birds in the real world,yes you me and the guy sitting next to you in a public transport who never cares to take a look at you rather than his or her mobile display are all a part and parcel of this crime and it might be happening even while im typing this!Even before everyone realises it might be game over for the real birds with new mobile segments coming up in the market with various features that has nothing to do with communication which is what they are for! Ultimately resulting in the increase in Mobile Towers in every locality which is gonna result in a mass extinction of birds and their natural habitats.Well you don’t have to be an Avian Expert to detect these changes, just look up the sky and the tree s(if there’s one) near your home for sign of life ,its changing in a very negative way! I can say I am a Bird Watcher,I don’t remember any morning without the sweet sound of birds,now their voices are depleting and sometimes stern silence is the answer i got when I searched for their sound!What is more disturbing is the fact that more than 60% of the urban area and the 15% of rural area is covered by mobile towers in India amounting to nearly 3 lakh towers across the nation,imagine the amount of mobile phone users increasing everyday and the number of mobile towers might pop up everywhere!What we have done here is disabled the whole inborn navigation system of birds via these microwave radiation avoiding the magnetic field from the earth(the mode the birds used to navigate).Let me give you an classic example of extinction “The Common Sparrow” is no more to be found where they once lived in abundance! I remember 3 or 4 years back then common sparrows living and visiting the garden in my home and even lived in one of the artificial nest that we’ve created in our home.Now its a part of extinct history and old news,actually i see their presence in news paper articles and images from the internet not in real life form!

House Sparrow

The year of their disappearance is proportional to the appearance of Three Mobile Phone Towers in our locality each of them in a Triangular position,reminds of mythical killing style ritual symbols! Leave alone that, The Angry Birds I Wanted to emphasize here is about every type of Birds that I watched and classified (even though i cannot name them) their presence here.There are over 5 types of birds that ive tend to bump in any given day near my locality and especially near my home and inside our garden.And i also remember the  strange Thing that i never missed here for the first three to four years of my life in our Newly Built home,Every morning i wake up to Knock on the Window panes from a Avian Visitor “A Raven” yes off course its a black crow.Its actions were quite spontaneous and it wont miss a day in knocking our window panes early morning,initially i thought our home was built in the way of birds flightpath or it was too high as a distraction for birds,but soon other crows followed suit.Half a dozen did the same thing in the same window for the next 3 years to come. Now Nearly 6 whole years of that i find other birds doing the same ritual except in different windows.Joining Angry Bird Brigade are mynas,type of humming Birds,Robin-bird,Grey sparrows and even a Woodpecker the latest to add on to the list of Angry Bird Avian s attacking Our Windows whenever possible. In fact there is no harm done to us nor i am worried about being attacked by them.All I am worried about is how they have fallen prey to the telecommunication Mast in our locality.Similarly other strange behaviour that i find among these birds is the tendency to make nests in two or three places and they don’t live there. Even if some live ,they don’t lay eggs or there seems to be no harmony among themselves.They are always agitated by something and aggressive.My observation here is about five types of Birds with the same kind of behaviour changes.All i sense here is a lot of Angry Birds who have lost their natural way of living and even extinct as in the cases of Common Sparrow due to radiation emitted by the Mobile Towers.New kind of mobiles can be reproduced by the will of the technology and areas can be penetrated any time for communication abilities to the population,but imagine the irreplaceable natural free flying independent life cannot be “Re Done” or brought back to living form the way they once lived and Ruled the sky.When I look up ,all I want to the see is the white bushy clouds sailing the blue sky with the birds flying like fishes jumping in the sea as ships sail past them.I Don’t want to see those tall skyscrapers nor the sky poking communication towers or hear the sound of aircraft engines ..Wish for Just happy flying birds living in their natural environment.

Harmful effects of Mobile Towers :http://www.ee.iitb.ac.in/~mwave/GK-cell-tower-rad-report-DOT-Dec2010.pdf