Sand on wheels

'Its a damn fun city and you must visit this place for sure' was the review I got from one of my friends when I had asked her about the trip. From then on the phrase stuck in my head and flashed every time I heard or read news of the events happening there. Though I was very curious, not once had I searched or bothered to look up for information, except that I knew it was a place where Kumbhmela and Ganga Arti was in action as I read in the newspapers.

Days passed and years later, while I was at the National Institute of Design working for the project
E-Kalpa, we were informed that the team will have to visit Varanasi to document handicrafts. Smitha, managed accounts and helped us to list places, contact artists and people we were supposed to meet so we could save more time during the tour.

Varanasi – ‘the fun city?’ flashed in my head and I continued to note some of the handicrafts along with Smitha. I had no idea of how the streets or people were, the images of the river Ganga and the structures that stood beside was something that caught me, they are addressed as Ghats. One among those buildings with shades of turquoise took me and I wished to see all of it in real.

Our journey began on Monday, eight of us all set with our luggage under our seats in the train, sharp at 9:55 am the train gave a jerk. We bid our byes to our head person who had come to drop us off. It was a plain start, spent an hour or so seeing out of the window, since ours was Air conditioned coach the scenery was not so clear.

I spent time talking and looking out of the window mostly. By 12 pm we were at the Tamil Nadu border. After few quick stops the train had stopped for a short period of time in one of the stations. We had our lunch, Chapattis that we had packed from home, Curd rice and a pack of Biryani from the station. At 4 pm we all spent time chit chatting about random topics and were together in one compartment.
After a good sleep for an hour or so at 5:37 pm I woke up and train had stopped, we had entered Andhra Pradesh via Tamil Nadu, the train had changed routes because of heavy rains. It was 8 pm when we got off the train to relieve ourselves from jet lag and the weather was chilly. We ate Chapattis for dinner (packed food from our homes) and bought some from the station. Harsha, my college friend then and colleague now at NID liked egg rice very much. He loved the dish and seemed to not bother about anything else. It was 10:30 pm when we wrapped our dinner session and prepared ourselves to sleep. At 11:00 pm I kept my cellphone for charging and felt the day to be longer than usual as I lay on the bed and dozed off. I woke up at 3:16 am to notice the train at halt again. When I woke up at 7: 01 am the train was at Pullampet.

'I'm busy is easy to say, take a moment - decide somewhere to go and experience some chill! Take some time for self, give out great energy, surround oneself with positive vibes and shine' runs in my head as I look at some of my pictures.'

I had gone to Coonoor (Ooty) last year in December along with my friend - Bhavana. The journey was good - we boarded a 10 'o'clock bus to go to Coonoor. The early morning view, u-pin bends, the trees and wild flowers just got us goose bumps. This time it was all different when we got off the bus, the auto guy knew where we wanted to head - 'The Birdhouse Backpackers' Hostel?' he had asked, it seemed to be known by locals. We called Prajwal to guide the auto guy with the location.

Vidhya and I are friends from college, 2010. We graduated together with different specializations, mine was Applied art while she had taken sculpture. She is a lady with such passion for art and living the moment's life lead her to teaching in a wonderful Nilgiris land-Coonoor.After some days, we hear news that she has found 'the one' and is going to be married soon. What a lucky B***h! I'm not scared to use this tone, as we have been friends for ages I feel ☺️.

We stayed at her house and not in the hostel as it was full with bookings. The house was good, a wide hall and to the right of it was a kitchen. The hall lead to two rooms further with attached bathrooms. Logan - her baby (Husky) was tied in the hall. The house held lots of warmth, we saw drawings hung in the hall given by visitors and some of her own. Our room itself was so good to see, nice and cozy. Lot of fog! Nothing was seen out the window as we entered. We opened the window, the fog seemed to be great with gently floating in and make us feel the chill! We both lay on bed Happy to be there.

Logan came running into our room, the moment his mamma unchained him. He jumps all over, I felt his weight when he pounced and landed on me and his eyes gleamed; he sat near the window and seemed to enjoy the view, we could just go play on and on with him. We spent the day at home and in the evening I put on my jacket and went for a walk taking Logan with us, the weather was chilly and began to drizzle. My friend had warned us of the bisons that would cross our path at unfortunate times, luckily we didn't have such meetings and it was a safe walk back home. After some time we hopped in the car and went for a quick ride to the hostel, it was somewhat around the corner - just a ten minutes drive and 'The birdhouse' signage on the corner of the street looked so good with turquoise glow, we took a right turn, and about 300 meters, there we were at
'The Birdhouse Backpackers Hostel!' The house was glowing in the dark, the gates creaked a little as we opened and the pillars that held these gates looked concrete without any paint. As we looked, Prajwal explained the scene of bison-breaking-the-pillars about some months ago and they had just got that fixed.

Prajwal and Vidhya had this idea of starting a hostel from the times when they had started to hang around together. She had always expressed her zeal to begin this new venture and I'm so glad they are on it! Their love story is just an enticing one, are you curious to know about it ?
Here you go:

https://www.instagram.com/wandering___sparrow/ to talk to Vidhya .

https://www.instagram.com/penciltripper/ to talk to Prajwal.

The narrative is both heartfelt and art felt when it comes from them.

After returning home, the entire night we've played UNO, all four of us with chilled Vodka and Sula wine along with chips and chocolates! Best combo ever! The mornings at Coonoor is generally cool, but this morning was beautiful and heartwarming as the Sun was seen piercing through the fog touching the tree top. We had a glimpse out the window at six 'o'clock (fog!) and the eight 'o'clock view was just bright and nice. We saw a far hill and the turn to which we had walked up-to on the previous evening. We got freshened up and to our surprise-no hangovers.

The hostel was a British house earlier and now turned into a cool backpackers' hostel with slight modifications. The most favorite part of it was the red oxide floor - I personally felt that it brings lots of warmth and a sense of being at one's house. I am very sure of not to leak the looks of the house - the interiors - designed by my friends Vidhya and Prajwal vaguely just by my words, so I fully suggest that-it's a cool drop by? Stay? You find out! We went to the hostel on the second day too, Prajwal got the beds cleaned up for the new Check Ins. The space is well organized and neat. I can assure that anyone can surely halt at this place and they shall be treated with so much love.

It was a cloudy afternoon when Prajwal and Vidhya decided to take us to see the dolphin's nose-a tourist destination on my third day/Saturday. The drive up to five kilometers was good and then we encountered a line of cars ahead of us. All of those cars and us had decided to see the same Dolphin's nose on a weekend! Great! We happily dropped the idea of seeing and enjoyed the hot tea nearby in a small tea shop after a great circus U-turn.

The very first encounter of the this place 'Coonoor' was when Vidhya had shared a few pictures and her pretty house she had rented. She is a free-spirited person who works and moves swiftly. After a year, we had visited her during the second week of January 2017 to spend girls' time. The morning walks were good, the weather was chilly and fogged mostly, people greeted with smiles, less use of vehicles, fresh air, everything was cheering, also an auto guy had even given us a free ride to the bus stop from where we were going to 'The Point Cafe'.

We did see 'The Point Cafe' shut when we drove to the water stream on the other part of the Tiger Hill, Coonoor. It was sunny, unlike the previous time. I enjoyed looking at the green slopes, tall trees, read the names of the shops that passed by on our way to the stream. We saw some farmers working on their piece of land-some fixing the soil and others throwing seeds. We stopped to click some pictures, we drove ahead two more Kilometers ahead to see a huge hill with green patch to the left and a tiny white line amidst. Few more meters and we stop, we walked in the bush following a trail that lead us to the stream. It was just us, our eyes gleamed when we saw twinkling water and got ready to step in! The water was so cold, it took us about a minute to stand firm as the stones were slippery and luckily - it wasn't a deep stream. Who wouldn't enjoy the sound of birds chirping, the view of tall trees and the gushing water? It was worth the tan! It was three 'o'clock when we stopped for lunch. A quick visit to the hostel just to check if Lily (Aunt who cooked at The Birdhouse) needed anything and we were back home.

My stay came to an end, Vidhya made hot chapatis for dinner and all of them had come to drop me to the bus stand. I got to my seat and waved good bye. Flying kiss and memories to cherish.

Gallery: 2019