A Trip, a Pen, and a Book

Last Sunday I was in Ooty on a short vacation with the family. It had been ages since we had been on a break so on the insistence of the family I agreed for a trip to Ooty. A week before I booked the entire vacation on MakeMyTrip which worked out a bit expensive but was worth it since we did not have any problems except one that I’ll mention later on. We flew to Coimbatore and from there motored up to Ooty. I had heard a lot about Mettupalayam since I was a child and finally I got to see the place, or rather, pass through it. Then it was an hour and half’s climb up the Nilgiri hills to Ooty via Coonoor. We stayed at a resort called Deccan Park Resort in Teetkul, away from the town. It was quiet and tranquil at the resort where we stayed for four days until Wednesday. During our stay we did the usual touristy things- sightseeing and shopping. We went to Doddabetta Peak, Botanical Gardens, Ooty lake, Pykara falls, again boating in the waters of the dam there, and on the way back we stopped at Coonoor where we went to Sim’s Park, Lamb’s Rock, and back to Coimbatore. The only problem we had was the cab driver who had a mind of his own. When I told him we’d have lunch at Mettupalayam he took us to Annnur. He was always late, never polite, and did not know the places well enough since he did not know how long it took to reach and how far the places were. If it weren’t for the driver we’d have had a better experience.

At Coimbatore we had a few hours to kill before catching the plane back to Hyderabad. So we ventured into Coimbatore where I had been earlier sometime in 1993 I guess. Coimbatore turned out to be a surprisingly neat town. Sometime in February I had read anarticle by K.Jeshi about an iconic hotel in Coimbatore -Hotel Annapoorna- in The Hindu and somehow I managed to read the article just before the Ooty trip. Luckily, I spotted the hotel when we were out shopping in Gandhipuram. We had snacks there that were shockingly cheap. Though I couldn’t find the time to look for books or bookstores in Ooty, I found a small store called ‘Pen House’ in Gandhipuram in Coimbatore where I bought an Oliver fountain pen for three hundred rupees. We rushed back to the airport only to learn that the flight was delayed by an hour. An hour later there was a message that it was delayed by another hour. Then again another message about another hour’s delay. Finally, the Spicejet flight that was supposed to leave at 8-15 pm left somewhere around midnight. I was relieved we got back from the trip safe and sound.

I have a confession to make here. About an year ago, sometime in the end of May I left the Secretariat Department where I had worked for almost six years and came back to my own department. I was posted to Nalgonda where I worked until mid-January shuttling between Hyderabad and Nalgonda almost every day. Luckily a friend told me to apply to an Institute in Hyderabad and quite miraculously I was taken in the Dr MCRHRD Institute which is incidentally located in a place I’ve written about here quite often- Jubilee Hills! I never thought I’d work in Jubilee Hills but here I am but more about it in another post. Anyway, at the Institute I am in a center called the Centre for Climate and Disaster Management. I have a bit of experience in Disaster Management having worked in the Disaster Management department at the Secretariat but my knowledge about Climate & environment isn’t much. Since I am supposed to teach about these issues I had to read as much about these subjects as I can find. I had read about ‘The Great Derangement’ by Amitav Ghosh and had seen it at the Akshara bookstore in Jubilee Hills. Yesterday (Friday) I went there and picked up the book. I had not been to Abids on Sunday because I was travelling and so buying this book somewhat made up for it.