Ooty, known variously as Nilgiris and Udhagamandalam, is queen among mountains of Tamil Nadu. For Madras, now Chennai, which according to Britishers had only three climates — hot, hotter and hottest — blue mountains of Nilgiris was the hill station to migrate specially when the climate in Madras was hotter or hottest. Altitude is 7,350 feet above sea level. I first visited Ooty in 1960 as a law student staying in the hostel at the High Grounds, Bengaluru. Opposite to our hostel stayed Dewan Poornaiah’s descendants in a mansion with a small ornate stone temple at a corner. One of our hostel-mates, who got to know the owner of the house learnt that he had a house in Ooty and would be happy to spare it in case the law students wanted to visit Ooty. So it was. As students, free accommodation was a big deal. Since then I have visited Ooty many, many times — annually as a ritual for a few years for holidays when my children were in school. On 8th Thursday, I went to Ooty after two years. I guess going to Ooty from Mysuru passing through two Reserve Forests — Bandipur in Karnataka and Mudhumalai in Tamil Nadu — is a bonus for the tourists who could see even as they drive a good number of games. You can find spotted deer, antlers, wild boars in hordes, bison, elephants, bears, peacocks and if you are lucky, even tigers. The roads are beautiful now, driving is no strain and pain like in the past. If you take the Masinagudi road and climb the Kalhatty Ghat slithering 36 hairpin bends, you save one hour arriving in Ooty in just three hours from Mysuru. Ooty is a plastic-free zone and the effort to keep it that way begins from the Tamil Nadu border of Mudhumalai. I saw workers collecting plastic water bottles and litters cast away from the vehicles in a sack to keep the roads clean.
