Chapter 5: Ooty (the place everyone knows) :-)

Ootacamund, home of the Todas, was transformed and developed magically under the British Raj to become Ooty- the Queen of Hillstations, as everyone calls it. “Ootaca” has been taken to mean “single stone” (according to the Tamil language) and “mund” refers to a Toda village, according to the language of Badaga.
Standing at an altitude of 7,440 feet (2,268 m) above sea level, Ooty certainly is the prodigal town of the Britishers, having served as the summer capital of the Madras presidency and being well connected with a complicated railway system built by British citizens. Now known as Udhagamandalam, Ooty still remains an important town in terms of administration as it is the headquarters for the district of the Nilgiris. And it has always been a “dream spot” for tourists touring South India. Ask any aged person, and they will tell you that the “exotic locale” of the films in those days was almost always Ooty.
Ooty is known to draw a large number of tourists every year, both Indian and international. It maintains a temperature of 15-20 degrees Celsius throughout the year and drops to freezing temperatures of 0 degrees and below. So, you probably wouldn’t want to venture near the Nilgiris during the winters!

Situated at a distance of 105 km from Coimbatore and 155 km from Mysore, Ooty is well-connected by rail and road to these places. The ideal way to travel would be to reach any of these main centres of Coimbatore or Mysore (A trip from Bangalore, situated 330 km away from Ooty, would be too arduous) by air, road or rail and then travel by taxi-cab or train to reach the heights of Ooty.

A visit to Ooty is, no doubt, one of the best ways to experience the magic of the hillside. The various tourist spots and centres also prove to be absorbing. Basically, you will never run out of stuff to do here. But, one of the main problems is the total commercialization of the place, not to mention overcrowding. The charm that Ooty is, or rather was, known for can only be experienced in isolation from the “madding crowd”. Honestly.