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Date : 16th to 18th August, 2003
Location: Sacred Heart College, Shembaganur, Kodaikanal.
W
e left
for Kodai from Chennai on the 15th
night by a tourist bus and got down at a place call Vatalagundu,
from there we headed for the famous Kurinji Organic Foods’ which is
owned and maintained by Mr.C.Jeyakaran (Pioneer
in India on Organic/Bio-dynamic farming). Incidentally, this whole trip was
made possible because of Mr.Jeyakaran’s kindness,
and it was indeed a great honour to be in the
company of the best and the most generous host that one could ever hoped for. We refreshed at the farm's guest house and
later on were taken around the farm and had the priviledge
of tasting some of the delicious and wholesome organic dried fruits, fresh
out of the factory’s oven. As for me I already had the pleasure of tasting Kurinji’s dried fruits some years earlier but for Henei it was her first experience and she just could
not stop talking about the sweet taste of the dried fruits and also the
ripe mangoes which Jeyakaran had given us to take
it back to Chennai. He then took us for a breakfast at a fast food joint
nearby on the way to Kodai; we all then headed
for the green hills of Kodaikanal by his car. It
was a nice uphill drive and as Mr.Jeyakaran had
once upon a time explained to me about the changing vegetation and soil
structures as the altitude increases, this time I tried emulating him by
explaining the same things to my dear wife, not very well at it though.
We reached our destination, the Sacred Heart College at Shembaganur sometime before noon, we checked in to our room and then we went to
visit his family’s Pear Orchard and the Herb garden(Herbs for the
Bio-dynamic preparation). After which, he took us for a wonderful lunch at
‘The Kodai Club’, unfortunately he had to leave
us immediately since he had another program to attend to at Bangalore.
Both of us just roamed about
the crowded town of Kodai
and then went for boating and cycling around the lake. By afternoon we took
a cab and came back to the hostel, tired but very happy. ‘
Home away from home’ was the greeting, written with a white chalk on
a blackboard at the entrance of the hostel and indeed we felt very much at
home; and some of the best things about this place were; quietness (only
sounds were the sound of our own heartbeats and the choruses from the tree
insects and birdsongs), no Phones, no TV, no News paper, and a bunch of
very friendly and peaceful looking Jesuit priests for companion. The
college campus has a vast collection of trees(as
old as 100 years), ferns, and
flowers, collected from all over India
and from different parts of the globe. The hostel verandah provided us with
a scenic view of the far away hills and also the vast plains below the Palani hill. We went for early morning long walks and
also for trekking to the hills and played a game of badminton with some of
the priest in the afternoon before starting the journey back to Chennai.
In conclusion, this was
indeed a very blessed, rejuvenating and profoundly peaceful holiday that we
both agreed to come back to and experience again and again, year after
year, whenever we have the opportunity to……
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