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| view on the way up |
So, after yet another precarious, but BEAUTIFUL, bus ride up the ghats, we arrived in Ooty, a hill station in Karnatka's neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. (that's tah-mill naah-doo, as opposed to tayum-ill nuh-doo). The drive took up most of the day, so we arrived in the evening just in time to hike up a hill and check out the scenery right after sunset and this was the first time I was genuinely COLD in India. Hill stations, of which there are many in India, were originally established by the British, who weren't exactly accustomed to the majority of India's climate and chose to live where they could occasionally enjoy a breeze and fifty degree evening. It's about as close to a winter wonderland as you can find in south India and I appreciated the noticeable apparel differences, too. Women wear heavy cardigans over their saris, and some men wear coats with their lungis (somewhat reminiscent of the ever-popular shorts & sweatshirt look often repped in MN). Feeling all "wrapped up" in the cool air and beautiful mountain scenery, I almost bought myself a sweater. Interestingly, many of the sweaters that people were selling in shops or on the street sort of looked like they came from US thrift stores...things got even more confusing when I realized many still had tags on them...some with prices in Euros, some dollars...none rupees. The economy...what a strange beast.
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| tea plantation in the nilgiri hills |
After checking into our darling, charming and romantic b&b, I read
by the fireplace in my room (!!!) and went to sleep. The next morning we
left bustling ooty and headed to the quiet Nilgiri hills to check out a
Kurumba tribal village. To get to the actual village, we had to trek
through the beautiful hills and tea plantations for about an hour. Our
visit just so happened to coincide with that of an NGO called The Earth
Trust run by a British woman (who originally visited India because her
family lived here, nothing like the colonial legacy, right?) that aims
to assist tribal people in reconnecting with traditional knowledge, ie
farming/gathering techniques, nutrition, healing, etc. An interesting
and noble idea, I suppose, but something about a white woman sitting in a
chair, dressed in the indian attire that she probably had tailor made,
looking over the Kurumba tribal people sitting on mats holding the new
lamps she had brought them made me kind of squirmy, for lack of a better
word. The reason lamps were being bequeathed to the villagers was that,
due to forest protection laws, the land which they are inhabiting is
theoretically supposed to be vacant and, for that reason, the government
has been extremely stubborn in providing them with access roads and
electricity for lights. Incidentally, one light was installed years
back, but it has since broke and been left unrepaired. Anyway, so this
British woman's arrival and lamp offerings were well-received by the
Kurumbas who responded by throwing something of a party, complete with a
group dance session (I was dragged in, it went OK), and the preparation
of some of the traditional foods that they actually no longer eat, save
for special occasions. In a way, we were lucky to be in the village on
the same day as the Earth Trust folks, because it meant there were a few
extra people around to translate (her Indian staff) and we were able to
experiment with the very unusual foods prepared for us. Little to her
knowledge, this British woman also sparked a good deal of conversation
within the people in my program, as we tried to reconcile our
inner-conflict with the notion of development and if/how NGOs should
attempt to work in tribal communities or villages in India.
During the few hours we spent in the village, a local anthropologist and expert on the various Nilgiri tribes showed us around and gave us a brief history of this specific Kurumba tribe. In fact, they have only inhabited the village that we visited for around fifteen years and before that, they still lived in forest areas even more removed from mainstream society. The village where they now live is very small, but extremely clean and, though everybody seemed excited and curious about our visit, it was difficult to communicate with them as to what we were doing in India, even with translators. At times I felt a bit awkward, like I was observing without engaging. Like we were intimately encroaching without being able to communicate. One funny moment was when a few of the older women pushed this young, bright-smiled, metal-mout girl towards us, explaining that she was attending college in Ooty. It was clear that this was a huge deal and when we tried to ask her a bit about what she was studying (computers) she got kind of shy about her English (we could understand her perfectly!) and dipped out of the situation by pretending she had to go assist in cooking or something. Funnily enough, our quick exchange with this girl, our peer, was the most "real" interaction we shared with any member of the Kurumba tribe all day. Besides this it was just a lot of "you like the food???" though I must note that the hospitality was almost too impressive, as after a while I had to physically hold the women serving foods' hands to prevent them from putting more food on my banana leaf.
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| village pets |
After we made the trek back to our bus, we visited another tribal area (belonging to the Toda people), but only briefly, to check out an interesting temple, in which women are not allowed. We also learned that, though this tribe's culture and livelihood traditionally relied on the buffalo, recently they have been forced to work on farms and plantations nearby - on land that used to belong to them - in order to survive. Between this desperation and increased alcohol consumption, this particular community seems to be suffering from the modernization trends that only some of India is enjoying.
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| toda temple |
That night we went back into town for the "last supper" of travel week and after eating our faces off we went to bed early for the long travels back to Manipal the next day. We woke up, enjoyed one last lovely patio breakfast and set forth back down the mountain. After driving through Tamil Nadu to a train station in Kerala, we hopped on an eight hour train to Mangalore and finally returned to Manipal after a two hour bus ride home from the train station. The train ride through Kerala was beautiful, though, and it was great watching the sunset from the breezy doorway of the train.
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| paneer pasanda, dal, paneer butter masala, jeera rice & naan |
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| back at the bottom |
SO there you have it. 10 days of travel. I hope I didn't bore anyone with details or leave out anything interesting, but at this point I've been home for over a month, proving my serious slackery regarding this blog. I think the overarching lesson of travel week in my mind was simply how much India has to offer and how truly vast this place is. We covered so much ground, but barely left the state of Karnataka! I already know it will require several more backpacking adventures to experience the other incredible parts of this country.
Soon I will post about my trip to Mumbai over diwali and also my weekend beach trip to Gokarna (my new favorite place on earth). Not much is going on in Manipal, just loads of homework, much to my dismay. I only have around three weeks left here and it feels fairly surreal. On one hand, I still feel like I'm just getting acclimated to an Indian life, but on the other hand, I really have been away from home for quite a while and I'm starting to look forward to being home more intensely than I have in the past. I hope all is well and that everybody is enjoying the crisp 30's and 40's. Don't worry, it's still in the 80's and 90's in Manipal. In less than a month, I'll be touring around Rajisthan without a care in the world and I could NOT be more excited.
all my love
 |
| a. manipal b. bangalore c. hampi d. mysore e. kabini river lodge f. ooty g. mangalore |
After checking into our darling, charming and romantic b&b, I read
by the fireplace in my room (!!!) and went to sleep. The next morning we
left bustling ooty and headed to the quiet Nilgiri hills to check out a
Kurumba tribal village. To get to the actual village, we had to trek
through the beautiful hills and tea plantations for about an hour. Our
visit just so happened to coincide with that of an NGO called The Earth
Trust run by a British woman (who originally visited India because her
family lived here, nothing like the colonial legacy, right?) that aims
to assist tribal people in reconnecting with traditional knowledge, ie
farming/gathering techniques, nutrition, healing, etc. An interesting
and noble idea, I suppose, but something about a white woman sitting in a
chair, dressed in the indian attire that she probably had tailor made,
looking over the Kurumba tribal people sitting on mats holding the new
lamps she had brought them made me kind of squirmy, for lack of a better
word. The reason lamps were being bequeathed to the villagers was that,
due to forest protection laws, the land which they are inhabiting is
theoretically supposed to be vacant and, for that reason, the government
has been extremely stubborn in providing them with access roads and
electricity for lights. Incidentally, one light was installed years
back, but it has since broke and been left unrepaired. Anyway, so this
British woman's arrival and lamp offerings were well-received by the
Kurumbas who responded by throwing something of a party, complete with a
group dance session (I was dragged in, it went OK), and the preparation
of some of the traditional foods that they actually no longer eat, save
for special occasions. In a way, we were lucky to be in the village on
the same day as the Earth Trust folks, because it meant there were a few
extra people around to translate (her Indian staff) and we were able to
experiment with the very unusual foods prepared for us. Little to her
knowledge, this British woman also sparked a good deal of conversation
within the people in my program, as we tried to reconcile our
inner-conflict with the notion of development and if/how NGOs should
attempt to work in tribal communities or villages in India. 
During the few hours we spent in the village, a local anthropologist and expert on the various Nilgiri tribes showed us around and gave us a brief history of this specific Kurumba tribe. In fact, they have only inhabited the village that we visited for around fifteen years and before that, they still lived in forest areas even more removed from mainstream society. The village where they now live is very small, but extremely clean and, though everybody seemed excited and curious about our visit, it was difficult to communicate with them as to what we were doing in India, even with translators. At times I felt a bit awkward, like I was observing without engaging. Like we were intimately encroaching without being able to communicate. One funny moment was when a few of the older women pushed this young, bright-smiled, metal-mout girl towards us, explaining that she was attending college in Ooty. It was clear that this was a huge deal and when we tried to ask her a bit about what she was studying (computers) she got kind of shy about her English (we could understand her perfectly!) and dipped out of the situation by pretending she had to go assist in cooking or something. Funnily enough, our quick exchange with this girl, our peer, was the most "real" interaction we shared with any member of the Kurumba tribe all day. Besides this it was just a lot of "you like the food???" though I must note that the hospitality was almost too impressive, as after a while I had to physically hold the women serving foods' hands to prevent them from putting more food on my banana leaf. 
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