Sharing a shelter with a winged spook
 

Returning from an unsuccessful wildfowl shoot in a tea estate near Munnar in 1965, my friend Ivan and I were caught in an unexpected thunderstorm.

30 Mar 2020

Sighting Munnar’s Loch Ness monster

During his initiation into tea planting, out of curiosity, he once asked his crusty old British boss how wild elephants crossed the deep and extensive reservoir nearby.

02 Mar 2020

Could there a better beginning to a day?
 

I like nothing better than to begin my day with a leisurely stroll on the extensive lawn fronting the old colonial bungalow near Munnar where we live.

08 Feb 2020

Living amidst wildlife in Munnar’s environs

Just a week earlier, my son and I had surprised a leopard squatting on the road late one evening as our car swept round a sharp curve.

07 Jan 2020

Downing the curtains on a magic show

The honorary secretary had scouted around for a magician and finally found a small-time one whose fee approxima-ted the club’s very modest budget.

05 Dec 2019

Is Munnar our most littered hill resort?

Unpleasant facts can’t be wished away: The peak tourist seasons invariably expose Munnar’s seamier side.

01 Nov 2019

Walking one’s way to a healthy life

It may sound odd but, at 75, I find nothing more relaxing than my daily jaunt—an hour of fairly brisk walking in Munnar’s hilly environs.

04 Oct 2019

Will the tumbler move on its own?

02 Sep 2019

An ambush at dusk in Munnar’s hills

The inexorable law of the jungle had prevailed: carnivores must literally live off herbivores.

05 Aug 2019

The night a tusker visited our house

An avid wildlife enthusiast, I tried to track down the elephant during my evening walks but it was elusive.

05 Jul 2019

An encounter with a tight-fisted Scot

The popularity of table tennis peaked in Munnar in 1975 when the South Zone Championships were held there for the first time ever.

07 Jun 2019

Attending Mass in the swinging fifties

Easter invariably evokes nostalgic memories of the service we children used to attend in a small church in a tea estate near Munnar in the 1950s.

03 May 2019

The drama at dawn around a lush lawn

Quite early one morning last week I was pensively sipping a cup of tea when I heard a muffled commotion on the lawn.

22 Mar 2019

Spending a night in a haunted bungalow

While out hunting in the 1960s I used to pass a dilapidated colonial bungalow outside Munnar. Squatting on a wooded hillock, it was isolated, spooky and abandoned.

28 Feb 2019

Christmas cheer for a lonely Scotsman

Spending Christmas alone is unthinkable to most of us since togetherness is the essence of the celebrations.

14 Dec 2018

The highs of hiking in the hills of Munnar

To me, nothing is more pleasurable than trekking in the hills of Munnar, either solo or with company—something I’ve been doing regularly since boyhood.

24 Nov 2018

The padre who sprang a surprise on us

To take care of our spiritual needs, Padre Marian once visited our isolated tea estate near Munnar in the 1950s.

02 Nov 2018

A memorable bus ride into the past

It was our only link with Munnar—25 km from the remote, mist-shrouded tea estate where we grew up in the 1950s.

06 Oct 2018

Warm memories brewed in a teacup

Nothing is more soothing to my eyes than the panorama of vast expanses of manicured tea fields, interspersed with stately silver oaks, carpeting (nay, warmly hugging) the hillsides of Munnar.

24 Sep 2018

Hunting and fishing for compliments

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ was an axiom Munnar’s former British tea planters took seriously.

11 Sep 2018