From Here to There

It just seemed so much like a recipe for encountering sights unseen and a fantastic assortment of four legged mammalians. A “jungle”. What does that usually bring to mind? Tigers and lush forests, spiders and some quasi-nostalgic booby trap, where a reluctant protagonist hero may accidentally fall.

This is not what I saw. The “winter time” – wearing shorts and t-shirts and sweating in 80-90º heat – is blighted by drought and the land is golden and dry. Gotcha jungle India. You are more like California before the rains hit in the winter. And then comes the monsoon, where rains pour down and make the sahara seeming landscape turn to a green forest that would rival the hobbit’s own.

Along the ride to the ‘Retreat’, the jeep is swaying along the 36 haripin curves and all I can say is thank god it’s not a bus. The road signs count every hairpin turn – interestingly enough. Each turn you take it tells you: 1/36 hairpin turns...2/36 hairpin turns...3/36 Hairpin turns...Thank you Tamil Nadu (the state I’m now touring), you have just answered number 56 of my 57 questions about this mountain. How many hairpin turns am I really taking?

Upon stepping outside of the jeep, I heard a melody wafting through the mountains. It was dreamy and muted, as if the music was being filtered by a cloud in its path to my ears. The melody was distinctly Indian, as no other music can be; The falsettos and combination of chords and keys are unfamiliar in western style music. My fellow jeep comrade told me that it was for a festival in some village in the hills. Within 30 minutes there was a dueling festival that had started up with its own music. My new 25 yr old friend said his favorite songs were the songs of the gods.

The beauty of the hills is amazing to behold. No trash. No honking, and as we float down, I’m realizing what I’ve been missing in India. The beauty of nature. Call me an old school girl, but I’m realizing that while the city of Bangalore is robust and full of energy, I miss the wind in those tree limbs and the smells of a forest and the light play of a sunset. I had been craving something, not knowing that this was the source of my unrest. I feel like I saw another face of India. The face that connected me, deeper down. This is the India I could fall in love with.