Prologue

It’s the summer of 2008. We’re all getting ready to travel to the Nilgiris, each in our own way. I, the teenager, ask myself what I am going to wear, my father tests out his camera and my mother is checking up all the details. I walk in to see her surfing the Internet, looking up Coonoor and Ooty, the places we are to visit.
“There’s hardly any information about Coonoor” she says. “There’s a lot about Ooty, but nothing about Coonoor. Looks like I’m going to be the only source of information here.”
My mother stayed for a few years at Coonoor and knows quite a lot about the place. So, if there was very less listed about Coonoor, we were going to have to rely on her memory.
“But what I don’t understand is why people don’t write about Coonoor as much as they do about Ooty. It’s just as beautiful and in fact, more of a getaway as there are less people about” she says again.
People ask us what our plans are. We tell them that we are visiting Coonoor and Ooty.
“Oh, Ooty! Ah, yes. Lovely place, but quite commercialized nowadays.” Here they hesitate and ask “What’s Coonoor? Where is it?” or worse “Never heard of it.” Some experienced travelers say “Oh, yes. Coonoor. We stopped there once, on the way to Ooty.” That’s it, nothing more.
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And so, we went on our trip. Within those four days, we grew to love Coonoor for all its subtleties. Tranquil, refreshing, wondrous…these might be a few words to describe how we felt about the place. We were struck afresh each time we looked out of our window and saw the lush mountainside, by the fact that Coonoor was not getting what it deserved. And that was a recommendation. At least, a description of what it has to offer.

How could people not know about it? We asked each other, amazed. The tourists, making their way up to crowded, polluted places…they didn’t know what they were missing. It seemed kind of sad.
Then, we felt a sort of responsibility towards Coonoor and its helpful, friendly residents. So, to describe in detail the wonders of Coonoor, this blog was created. Here is the tale of Coonoor, seen through our eyes...