Mom and dad used to take us to Ooty year on year. My first trip to Ooty was when my mother was carrying me. Mummy, daddy and his teenager siblings Nirmala and Sridharan had gone in a four door Herald car. The car had been among the first few in our region and therefore it drew a lot of attention. My brother Suresh and myself were born within a short interval. Our visit to Ooty as a family took place when he was a little boy. I remember our Ayah accompanying us to Hotel Dasaprakash. Mummy had made green peas poriyal and hot ghee rice with the aid of a cooker and a heating pan inside our room itself.
Mom and dad used to take us to Ooty year on year. My first trip to Ooty was when my mother was carrying me. Mummy, daddy and his teenager siblings Nirmala and Sridharan had gone in a four door Herald car. The car had been among the first few in our region and therefore it drew a lot of attention. My brother Suresh and myself were born within a short interval. Our visit to Ooty as a family took place when he was a little boy. I remember our Ayah accompanying us to Hotel Dasaprakash. Mummy had made green peas poriyal and hot ghee rice with the aid of a cooker and a heating pan inside our room itself.
Our summers were with our grandparents at Salem. However our trip to Ooty used to precede our holiday with them. Hotel Dasaprakash was located near the Race Course in Ooty and it had been endowed with a Race View block. We used to stay in that block too. A fixed lunch used to be served and the restaurant used to give hot ghee roasts ( dosa ) with chutney and sambar. We simply loved them. Our day used to begin with a bath followed by breakfast. This was followed by a trip to the boat house. Daddy used to row the boat. He had been a power lifter earlier and therefore it was a childs play . A visit to Mohan Stores was a must everyday. We used to buy KitKat and Toblerone and also some warm clothing every year. A drive to the Golf Club used to follow. Daddy would socialize with the golf playing Coimbatoreans for a while and we used to return to the room later. A game of snooker in the golf club was part of his routine.
A trip to Shinkows used to be a part of the trip. Egg soup , fried rice and noodles were savoured in Shinkows. Of course Hotel Savoy was also on our list. However I enjoyed the visits to Hotel Fernhill, a property which belonged to the Maharaja of Mysore. I remember seeing a number of movie artists in this old hotel which was endowed with a lot of wood and glass. The Nizam of Hyderabad had a property next door. Lunch was followed by a period of relaxation. I used to read books in the afternoon. These books were got from Higginbothams in Ooty. I remember reading the Complete Sherlock Holmes consisting of four novels and fifty six short stories during one summer in Ooty. Daddy had got me the book in Higginbothams at Chennai which was known as Madras those days.
My mother used to get Nilagiri Thailam ( Eucalyptus Oil ) for her grandmother Swarnambal who lived in Salem. A visit to modern Stores and Kingstar Bakery had been the need of the hour. We devoured the chocolates got from those shops. Chellarams used to be next door and we regularly took a ' Chakkar ' of the huge store. Evenings were reserved for the Botanical gardens. All of us ran , rolled and played in the garden. I had once requested my father to take a picture of myself with the cannon in the garden. We saw the Governor's bungalow too. Some of my relatives trekked upto the Toda village. I never did that because for I was always pre occupied with my novel on hand.
Grand uncle P.A.R.Viswanathan Chettiar and his wife Indrani had spent elaborate summers in Ooty for years. They used to catch up with the movie actor M.N.Nambiar and his family. Later, they had hired a house called ' Kesar Villa ' near Hotel Fernhill. The finishing scene of the movie ' Ilamai Oonjaladugiradhu ' had been shot there. We stayed in Kesar Villa during one of the summers. My cousins Vijaya, Yamuna and grand aunt Sitakalyani had accompanied us in that trip. My aunt Prabulla had accompanied us during one of our trips and we had stayed in Hotel Nahar. Saras was a place for books those days and it was near Chellarams.
A walk up to the Lord Krishna Temple in Hotel Dasaprakash was always enjoyable. The place was known as ' Govardhanagiri '. Daddy told us that Dasaprakash Hotel had been founded by Seetharama Rao. A number of horse race enthusiasts used to stay at Dasaprakash. However we never went to races for daddy never liked to bet or play cards. A number of Rotary District events were held in Ooty and we accompanied our parents to the events. My father K.Govindarajulu was known as KG in the Rotary circles. We went to the Doddabetta peak just once. Crowds were a deterrent for us and therefore we avoided visiting Ooty during the ' Flower Show ' in May. Our visits were wrapped up after purchasing vegetables from the Ooty market. My mother Aravindakumari would make vegetable biriyani for us on our return. We had once stayed with grand aunt Indrani, at Missionary Hills and our car huffed and puffed during the steep drive. Now I remember changing water for the car radiator at Burliar on our way when we used the old generation cars.
We drove back in the evenings for Coimbatore would be hot during summer. Varkies from Coonoor used to be on our return shopping list. I remember going to the Sim's Park at Coonoor after a visit to the Pasteur's Institute. Had to go there after a dog bite and we had lunch at Hotel Ritz. My last trip with my parents and brother was during the summer of 1990. We had done our shop annual pooja ( Founding day pooja on May 1st ) and then gone to the hills for a four day trip.
My first holiday with friends began at Ooty. It was the summer of 1985 and dad had taken us for a one week trip after my plus two exams. I stayed with my childhood friend Santossh at his house on Missionary Hills. It was known as ' Kappal Bangla ' in Ooty and the real name was ' Woodend '. A.R.Srinivaasan and myself stayed in Kappal Bangla for a week with Santossh. We never used a car and just walked down to the market in order to catch a bus. The bus would take us to Finger Post and we used to walk up to the Golf Club thereafter. We took the same route for returning to Kappal Bangla. It was a wonderful property which extended over six acres and had been purchased by Santossh's grandfather R.Venkataswamy Naidu ( Founder Madras Aluminium Company ). The three of us used to visit Archie's and have snacks everyday.
Our trips to Ooty continued with other friends too. Anand Prasad, Rajesh Devaraj, Manoj Rajani, Manish Mirani, Manoj Shah, Raghuram, Sumeet Roy, Vikram Dhamodharan, Veerashivakumar joined us on those trips and we would to visit ' Southwick ' for the customary dinner every year. Our friend Junaid Ali Sait and family used to receive us with warmth. Their house Southwick was known as ' Mutta Bangla ' and it was a huge mansion covering several acres. Their private museum is a must see. The trophy room, billiards table, the first floor dining hall and exquisite cutlery were among the best that I had seen. Junaid had taken us to the family estate in the Masinagudi area and it was a marvelous place. Elephants, tigers and wild boar used to run amok in the vicinity.
I remember going to attend a Rotaract Conference during my college days and we had stayed at the Lawley Institute. Hari Loganathan of K.R & Sons had accompanied us. We met quite a few young girls and boys belonging to Rotaract during that trip. Our trips were by car, two wheeler and bus. The trips on the two wheeler was clandestine. We used to take Santossh's car and drive up on a Friday, drop Junaid and return home. Lunch was at Shinkows. All of us went to Assembly Rooms to watch movies. We had walked through the nook and corner of Ooty those days. The trips were memorable.
My father's friend, MIT ( Massachusetts Institute of Technolgy , USA ) educated R.Prabhu had been a Member of Parliament representing Nilgiris constituency. I remember driving up to his house near the Ootacamund Club along with my friend Santossh in order to greet him on his victory. We had enquired about the lead position on the way. He was a Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi Government. His father, Late Parliamentarian P.R.Ramakrishnan and mother Rajeswari Ramakrishnan had once hosted a grand lunch for us in the same house. Our group trips continued into the nineties of the past century. My friends and their wives used to take all the bachelor friends including myself to Ooty and we used to stay at the Nilgiri Woodlands which was run by Junaid Ali Sait. We attended a ' Fashion show ' at Hotel Savoy during the summer of 1993. We used to drop a thanks giving coin at a dargah in one of the hair pin bends on our return journey regularly.
Several among the rich and famous from Coimbatore had lovely summer homes in Ooty and I remember running into them during my trips. Kurinjis was a place for dosas. Santossh and myself were preparing for our B school entrance exams and we used to do five problems and five words per day. I remember both of us doing this exercise even while travelling up the ghats.
I did my MBA at BSMED ( Bharathiar School of Management and Entrepreneur Development ). It was a unique programme those days. All the B School students went on a trek to Catherine Falls. The trip was fabulous. Everyone was in high spirits. Our beloved Prof K.Ramakrishnan ( Ramki ) accompanied us. We walked through an estate and trekked for a while. The experience was unique.
Great grand father P.A.Raju Chettiar used to love the soft and fluffy idlis which were possible at Ooty. We carried the idlis in a tightly packed manner in order to serve him at home. He used to love it. He had been a member of the Lawleys Institute and was a regular visitor Ooty along with my great grand mother Rajalakshmi prior to the second world war. G.V.Muthuswamy Naidu of the PSG family had once told me about the visits of my great grand parents. They were in the habit of sharing the murukkus and seedais with pickle from home to the friends at Ooty.
My wife Sujatha joined me to Ooty on our first holiday in 1995. Years later our son Madhav Balaji began joining us on our trips to Ooty, the Queen of Hills. The trips to Ooty during my growing up years enriched my life. Those were times when the ecology of the Nilgiris was much better. Ever since my childhood days, my family members made me understand the importance of preserving the ecology. Cutting a tree was considered to be a sin in our house. My holidays helped to understand that the journey was as important as the destination.