Lake Avalanche, Ooty

It is a picture straight out of  a Walter Foster painting book- the mountains in the distance, grey with a hint of violet, pasted against a darkening sky....Swirls of clouds flit across the canvas, rest for a while on the mountain tops.... and then make haste. The mountains and the clouds are mirrored in the limpid waters of the lake.... the reflection so clear... that it looks like one harmonious entity... with the line of symmetry stretched across the lake edge! A gentle roll of the meadows...punctuated with a clump of trees here and a bush there....draw our eyes... all the way.. right up to the lake front. The landscape is simple, yet arresting- just how your nine year old would scrawl hills, lake and trees on her drawing pad. It is surreal. It is Lake Avalanche, 25 km from Ooty.

As the day draws to a climactic close, we huddle in the bus. We need to get to the parking lot at Lake Emerald before darkness and head out to Ooty from there. The bus lurches, rocks, sways and jolts rather dangerously...as it makes its way through the make-shift path- made worse by the afternoon rain. It slices through the thick vegetation on either side of the path. An overhanging branch forces its way through the bus window and gives a nice tonk on the head to an inattentive bus occupant. He needs that wake-up call!
It is a little like Jurassic Park- an electric fencing follows us all the way.. to keep one side of the forest and its inmates....supposedly out of bounds from us. There are warning signs as well... that the fencing is "live" and shouldn't be touched. This is India... we are sure that the electric fence is purely ornamental!! Our hope is that the animals can also read... but don't make a similar inference!

"Yes, we have animals in this area," Karim mentions rather casually. "You should remember that we are connected to Mudhumalai Forest on the other side. So, it's not uncommon to see animals. On this very stretch we've seen one Gaur (Indian Bison) which used to visit every year at a particular time. But, they are not dangerous. The black bear is dangerous- he attacks!" "Mary!" Karim shouts over the drone of the bus, "Wasn't it your relative who had a close shave with that black bear? He is lucky to be alive!"
"Mary is from a village close to Lake Emerald. A woodcutter in her village had a narrow escape the other day. He heard a roar, turned back... and saw that it was a tiger. He jumped... jumped 16 ft... right to the top of a tree! That saved him. Tigers can't climb trees. If it had been a leopard, he would have been gone... leopards are very skillful, they can scale trees, of any height. Anyway, the woodcutter was on top of the tree and the tiger at the bottom! He called from his cell... sitting there. Soon, the villagers came with their drums and the tiger ran away! That's how it is!"

Soon, we are at the parking lot. Karim wants a ride in our car to Ooty. We readily agree. It's not easy to find such an engaging conversationalist.

Karim is a manager of a property on Lake Avalanche. Earlier in the day, he took us on a tour through the property. He showed us the cow sheds, the sheep and the horses. "The sheep are native, we have only two of them now, two others died. Each one has enough wool to make two full suits! But they are not as well endowed as the European sheep.
But these horses are not from here. They are all from Rajasthan. This is "Destiny", this one is "Jhansi"...this one is so big, but he is only 6 months old! Look at this one- he's actually 7 years old, but so tiny- it's a different breed."

We went  right up to the lake front. The water extended as far as we could see, rimmed by the mountains. "The lake is fed by these two streams from the mountains. We've never seen so much water, at least, not for the last seven years! You see those cows on the other side of the lake, on those hill slopes? Can you believe that earlier, they could actually walk across, over a bridge? You don't see it, but the bridge is actually submerged in the lake. We had record rains this year."
We listened to the commentary, all wide-eyed. "If you think that this lake is beautiful, it is nothing compared to the Upper Bhavani Lake! The Lake is somewhere up there...over those mountains- 20 km from here. You need special permission to visit the lake. They found 20 carcasses there, by the temple....." Karim jolted us...and then continued...."of mountain deer. It rained so much that the deer could not get down. There was no food and the older ones perished." Karim mentioned, in a matter of fact manner.
The rest of the afternoon was spent on horse riding while the more ambitious ones amongst us topped it with adventure sports like "monkey crawling", "rock/wall climbing" and "zip-lining".

At the parking lot...... It is a tight fit, but Karim is also huddled in our car. By now, the sun is down and the sky is lit with the after-glow, streaks of orange soon fade away into the grey of the sky and the mountains. The car goes past Lake Emerald and the Emerald township.

Earlier in the day, we went past the same landscape, completely bowled over by its untouched beauty. Sweeping meadows greeted us on every side. Like a Van Gogh painting, the gentle slopes came alive in the dazzling sunshine, crisscrossed with fields- tiny squares in deep-green, light-green and some in a dull olive-green hue. We thought it was tea; we later learnt that most of them were potato, carrot and cabbage.

There's not much to see- by now, it is pitch dark. Through the trees, we catch the twinkling of distant towns on the hill slopes....
"The 'britishers' (as Karim calls them) came to Ooty in the 1840s. The first route was through Kothagiri, from Mettupalayam. There were no stone houses in those days, just the semi-circular, wooden structures of the natives- the "thodas". The British built the first stone house, which stands to this day, as part of the Arts College. Next, came the railway from Ooty to Coonoor. The tracks have a tooth in the middle. This is unique to Ooty, not even the train at Darjeeling has this feature. The roads came much later. We are wonder struck how they could construct so much, in so little time... that too, in those days! You can check the markings still left on some of the bridges- it says 1908! While we wonder about the British and their ability to construct, the British themselves wonder about the pyramids of Egypt! How could they construct so much....?." Karim drifts away and we leave him to his thoughts.

"But the Brtishers made one big mistake! In fact two- they brought the "sholas" to Ooty and the eucalyptus. These two have ruined Ooty's ecology! These were all just grasslands- they say grass can save a person from death, (we need to ask Karim how!) but the British planted these sholas. Sholas are trees which take over the entire landscape- they are completely useless, they can't even give shade! As far as the eucalyptus goes, 30% of the water table in Nilgiris is sucked by them. We are now trying to cut down both of them.. in a phased manner, to reverse the process. It is tough, but it has to be done!"

Surprisingly, on our way back from Ooty, we spotted a sign-board which said "Save wildlife and protect the sholas"!!! We need to let Karim know that there are forces which are working against him!

By now, we are close to Fern Hill Palace. "This palace is run as a hotel by the Maharaja of Mysore, just like the Lalita Mahal Palace at Mysore. The Britsh used to stay in these parts of the town. Except for the collectorate office, there was not much in Ooty proper. You saw the Ooty Lake, isn't it? It extended right up till here, in those days."

Karim has a pink face and blue eyes, dark brown hair, and walks with a swagger of Dev Anand, with a shawl casually thrown over his shoulder. He speaks to men at the stable in Tamil, switches to Hindi as he briefly talks to his family over the cell.... and maintains fluency in English, when it comes to us. It is difficult to pin him down to a particular geography. 

He is remarkably fluid on any topic. He knows the International Schools in the area, how they were built by one Thomas from Kerala in the 1970s, where the foreign students come from... right down to how many students sit in each class!!  He insists that Lovedale Lawrence is still the best international school. You don't contest someone with such breadth of information.

Another bend- Karim says he is home... and has to get down. We catch the twinkle of his eye.. as he waves his hand, thanks us briefly and melts into the darkness.

Lake Avalanche, Lake Emerald and Karim... they are all reduced to a memory... vignettes of which we pull out from time to time... to add colour to our monochrome world!






 

"Golu" and "dashavatara"

Navratri is a fascinating time. South Indian families celebrate it with "golu" (or "kolu" as some choose to correct others)- idols and dolls are brought out of the dusty attic and arranged in steps. Shiva, Vishnu and Devi occupy centre-stage and share their space graciously with the Queen's Guard- that motionless soldier at the Buckingham Palace with the enviable head of hair! Ganesha, Kartikeya, Rama with Lakshmana, Sita and Hanuman, the Statue of Liberty, the Swiss cow-bell, the Taj Mahal, the snake charmer, the "marapaachis" (wooden couple), saints like Raghavendra swami and Adi Sankara, the "chettiar couple" selling grocery items- it is a motley crowd all right, but for nine days, they fill the home with their lively presence and make the occasion so entertaining.

No "golu" is complete without the ubiquitous "dasha-avataaram set". No golu is complete without glaring errors in arranging them! Seldom do folks go in for a "good sized dashavataram set". It looks as if the ten idols are purchased small, so that all of them can completely fit in one row with enough elbow room between them. There is also the occasional hazard of an over sized "matsya" or a "kalki" kept so close to the edge of the steps... that it can tip over...leaving only nine of them standing for the rest of the days!!
Invariably, the idols are small and lack detail. Most of them, except for the notable exception of Vamana and Kalki are coloured blue for Lord Vishnu is blue-hued. Moulds used for crafting the idols seem to have become jaded with repeated use over the years. The result is that the plough that Balarama wields looks exactly the same as Parashurama's axe as does Rama's bow.
To complicate it, Varaha is a boar and Kalki is depicted as a horse. It looks as if the same mould is used to cast both the idols and they are distinguished based on just their skin-tone. Varaha is black and Kalki is white. Matsya looks like a mermaid and Kurma has a turtle for its feet. Given the size of the images, they look just the same.

Surprisingly, folks who keenly celebrate golu are at a loss to even name the avataras in order. No wonder they can't get the arrangement right! Everyone begins with earnestness- "matsya", "kurma", "varaha"- the fingers go up in quick succession. Somehow, after the 4th avatara, they suffer a sudden bout of amnesia and lose steam. They reel off the rest of the avataras that they know and find that two fingers are still unaccounted for! They need to start from the beginning.. and suddenly remember that they missed Vamana the last time. But their count gets no better and this time, three fingers still remain!! It is inexplicable. Sometimes, you feel you need to help them out by saying "you forgot to count yourself!!" but the joke doesn't cut and you run the risk of being snubbed, for being plain silly.

The upshot is.... total confusion when it comes to dashavataram arrangement. There are golus where the avatarams are broken in half and arranged in 2 rows- a total no-no and completely robs the grandeur of the set. In some places, Kalki has traded places with someone as early as Varaha. Matsya and Kurma are swapped and when it comes to the sequence of "parashurama-rama-balarama-krishna", lesser said the better. No one ever gets it right.

There is a problem with Balarama. There are many who feel that he shouldn't be there in the first place. Like Ravindra Jadeja, Balarama needs to prove that he actually belongs to the side. We hope he can vindicate his selection with a match winning performance, but it may be too late, even with Balarama's all round capabilities!
Yuvraj's fans are sure that he is a better allrounder than Jadeja. So too, in the dashavataram side, there is a strong contingent out there, which would like Balarama's place taken up by Lord Buddha. But if you place Buddha, the batting lineup needs to be changed. Buddha can bat only after Krishna whereas Balarama is a better batsman and would play before Krishna! It all becomes terribly confusing.

But "golus" in South India rarely feature Buddha. Buddha didn't accept the validity of the vedas supposedly and it was reason enough to leave him out of the side. In the South, they go with the time tested side where Balarama always plays- no questions asked.
A South Indian lady invites friends home for golu, some of whom are from North India as well. They recognise the avataras on the steps and start the enumeration drill of "matsya", "kurma"...and stumble when it comes to Balarama.
"Arey Balram!?... but Krishn and Balram grew up together at Vrindavan no!? They are brothers kyon? How can they be different avataras?"
It is a tough question. Our South Indian "golu lady" stammers and slurs.

What people conveniently forget is that there is a more obvious example of avataras appearing together- Parashurama. Parashurama spanned three avataras- he was of course the hero in his own time, but he continued to live on and later confronted Rama. Not just that- he was present in Krishna's time too and taught archery to Karna and even battled with Bhishma.
Hence, this argument is not a satisfactory one to drop Balarama.

It all boils down to contribution and what value he brings to the side. It is here that Balarama faces a challenge. Either his exploits are actually few or he did not have a good marketing wing.
There are few stories where Balarama comes across as a true match winner. He is a little like Dravid- when he gets a hundred, a Laxman or a Sachin also scores a century and Dravid's contribution is overshadowed.

Many years ago, Adarsh Chitra Katha competed with our good old Amar Chitra Katha and brought out a comic on Balarama. We were still kids and hadn't yet learnt to read and had to be satisfied looking at the illustrations. In this book, Balarama took on a powerful monkey and with his bare hands, completely beat him up. The illustrations were engaging. To our childish eyes, the monkey looked like Hanuman... (despite the anachronism) and it appeared as if Balarama could challenge even the mighty Hanuman!
It was much later that we started to read and found out that the monkey was just another nondescript asura with an ape like form and had nothing to do with Hanuman! Even that prowess could not be ascribed to Balarama.

In the interest of maintaining the sequence in "golu" correct, I propose Buddha to be added to the pantheon. His image is well known and least confusing. You wouldn't trade his place for..say Narasimha! Even a person with reasonable knowledge of chronology would place him after Krishna.
Another approach would be to truncate the number of avataras to nine- nava-avataars for nava-raatri!

May I suggest an amicable solution to this entire mess- can these idols be made with the sequence numbers written at the bottom? As simple as that! It will solve the problem for good.

Till then, I will continue to be a proof-reader and inspect every golu... till they all get it right!!
Buddham sharanam gacchaami! Peace! Peace! Peace!!