one day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice  ¶ 5:38 PM 0 comments

  Bumping and Screeching kodaikanal emits this invisible magnetic force, drawing towards it's center those unsuspecting visitors who stumble into its range. i can't begin to tell you how many people i met here who came for a "visit," never to leave again. my experience has been no exception- i am already making imaginary plans for my return- even entertaining the thought of applying for a job at the international school here. but. by the time you read this, i will be moving further and further outside of kodai's physical limits, bumping and screeching away on an eastward-moving train.

sitting here in front of the computer, i find it difficult to encapsulate my five weeks in this oasis. more than anything, being in kodaikanal has been about the people i have met. after only a week i was already beginning to run into familiar faces in town, and after two weeks i had more invitations for tea and dinner than i had time for...

leaving here, i'm entering the last phase of my journey. after spending two weeks at another yoga course in chennai, i will make my way back to bombay airport, where a plane will be waiting to carry me back to new york.  ¶ 11:14 PM 0 comments

  What I'm doing in Kodaikanal Here’s a little something about where I am and what I’m doing here…
One of the things I wanted to do while in India was some environmental work—and so here I am, working for an NGO--the Palni Hills Conservation Council (PHCC). I'm working on several projects. Making botanical drawings of some of plants, for reference purposes; designing a t-shirt; and reading and compiling information on various topics (medicinal plants, forests, water quality, tribal knowledge, etc) for some brochures.

More about Kodaikanal:
I arrived in Kodaikanal just after sunset on a Tuesday morning—the 25th of January. Known as “Kodai” (pronounced KO-DEE), this town is one of a number of “hill stations” set up by the British in the 1820s. As far as I understand, hill station locations were selected for the benefit of officers of the British Indian Government, and for their suitability for “sanitariums” (hhhmm). In the case of Kodai, the British chose this spot, which has an altitude of 2,100m, because of its climate (it has only one monsoon season, Oct-Dec, and a very dry winter) and its freedom from Malaria (malaria-carrying mosquitoes don’t live about 1,500m). Americans also liked this place—missionaries from the States came here in the 1840s and established what is now the prestigious Kodaikanal International School.

Of all the hill stations in India, Kodai is said to have the lowest maximum temperature in summer and the highest minimum in winter (this is lucky for me—if it were any colder at night I’d be in trouble. As it is I couldn’t sleep the first two nights. I wasn’t really prepared for such cool weather, though now I’m getting used to it. Nights are cool (I’ve been making a fire almost every evening), but when the sun comes out, it’s pretty toasty. Mists roll through often and suddenly, though, making temperatures drop in a second.

The name Kodaikanal comes from the words “kodai” and “kanal.” “Kanal” is Tamilian for “a dense forest,” and “kodai” has numerous etymological possibilities, including “creeper,” “the end,” “summer,” and “gift.” Dense forest—called a shola, the Indian rainforest—covered this area less than 100 years ago, but was devastated by the introduction of exotic commercial plantation crops like eucalyptus (a.k.a. “blue gems,” from Australia). The street-vendors of Kodai all sell bottles of eucalyptus oil, which has several medicinal purposes. There is also a lot of chocolate for sale here!?!?

Thanks to the PHCC and other people interested in conserving the amazing biodiversity here, many of the eucalyptus plantations are gone, and a lot of native tree species have been replanted. Did I mention it's gorgous?  ¶ 3:46 PM 0 comments