A surprise visit to an ancient jail in the tea gardens in Ooty

  A jail in the tea gardens!That was exactly our reaction when we happened to see the rusted sign board while we drove down from Ooty.The people around us actually did not find the sign board worth noticing,since we were the only four who walked down to the jail building after taking directions from the Tan Tea outlet on the main road.After all ,a jail is the last thing anyone would expect in such a picturesque surrounding.

We walked past beautiful huts of the workers of the Tan Tea Estate to reach this asbestos roofed building.From a distance ,the jail building looked more like a well maintained warehouse to me.

A lone watchman hurriedly opened the doors of the jail to us. He readily explained the interiors of the jail in what we assumed to be Tamil.We were obviously the only visitors to the jail that morning.This is not very surprising ,as this place finds no mention in the places to visit around Ooty.

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The jail has two huge halls running parallel with cells lined up to one side. The asbestos roof has openings at places to allow sunlight.Towards the rear end of the jail ,there also exists a small room used by the British as an execution room  (as the watchman told us). The main hall of the jail is surrounded by dispensaries and office rooms.Part of the jail building has been converted to a tea museum.We went inside to take a look ,but there was nothing much to see except for models of the tea making procedure.

                                  
A jail immediately brings many questions in our mind.But what I was wondering is why should a jail be built in such a remote place.This one of course had  a very different story.

       In the 19th century  the British were starting tea plantations on this region of the Nilgiris which is called Naduvattam.Along with tea they found the climate of this place suitable for cinchona plantation and planned to grow this medicinal tree here.At the beginning they had started the process with help of the locals ,but seeing a slow progress they applied for more labours to the British government who sent  566 convicts from the Second Opium War and also  from the British Straits Settlements( Singapore,Malacca and Penang) to work here as labours .

The Naduvattam jail was thus constructed to accommodate the convicts somewhere around 1865.Another reason for bringing the convicts here was the rare possibility of escape of the convicts from the hills.With the Madras jail running short of space,this was a relief to the British. After completing their sentence,the convicts  were left free here ,who married local Tamil women and settled as dairymen and tea garden workers.It goes without saying that they never returned to their country.The place nearby ,where they settled is called the Chinese village till today.

This was a very insignificant place,but had a very dynamic past.Quite in contrary to the solitary look it bears today.The rooms around the jail building were locked,except the office building,where the watchman himself issued us tickets. He could only explain very little of the intriguing past of the place.There were many stone and metallic objects of those times lying around,with none to explain their use in the past.And then the execution room,though morbid ,yet it is  always fascinating to many.So did the convicts try to escape the jail at times.There was a lot to listen to ,but practically no one to tell.

This was my fourth visit to Ooty ,but I had missed this place in all my earlier visits.Probably because we had concentrated more on the very popular tourist destinations  here.
                                                       
                                                            

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The main building

The picture of the structure below was a canteen for the Britishers,as told to us ,but we felt that alternatively this place might have been a place to store the collected tea leaves,as their was an weighing machine right outside it.

                           


                                 
                                                 The office rooms,in the premises

There were many things lying around old and rusted ,which we could not comprehend.Had there been a guide ,many of these objects would be explained.

 

                                                     The corridors and the cells

                                            An opening in the roof to allow sunlight

An old rusted latch,on the jail door 

                                                    

The execution room

              

The Naduvattam Jail Lies to the right of the road while we drive down from Ooty.The best landmark being a Tan Tea outlet on the main road.There are two main roads to Ooty ,one being the route which goes across Masinagudi and the other via Gudalur.The ancient jail is located on the route which passes via Gudalur.This place is located after the Pykara lake and is about an hours drive from Ooty(approximately30 kms.)

Rameshwaram(Tamil Nadu) And The Pamban Island || The Perfect Weekend Getaway

Rameshwaram and the Pamban Island

  Rameshwaram had always been a pilgrimage to all ,but my recent visit to place revealed quite a mixed bag of things other than just  a pilgrimage.I would rather call it  a melange of things ,from visits to temples , serene beaches ,tit bits of mythology strewn everywhere,or even places of inspiration as the newly constructed  memorial of Dr. Abdul Kalam Azad.

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First and foremost -The Temple

  The Ramanathaswamy Temple in Rameshwaram is the most coveted place for pilgrims to the island.
It houses one of the twelve Jyotir Lings in India and it is believed that a visit to Kedarnath or Badrinath in the north is not complete without a visit to Rameshwaram .This small town in the Pambam island  is  a very popular destination for shaivites as well as vaisnavites,since Rameshwaram is also associated with numerous incidents in the epic of Ramayana.It is from this island that Lord Rama is believed to have waged a war against Ravana to bring back Sita from Sri Lanka.

 Once in Rameshwaram ,you will be surprised to see signboards of many teerthams all over the place .The teerthams are basically holy water tanks all over the island with temples built along with them. Each teertham has  a different mythological story associated with it.Twenty two of these teerthams are located inside the Ramanathaswamy temple itself and are referred to as Agni Teertham.

The visit to the temple for Darshan
There can be many ways of getting Darshan
1-You can start with a bath in the sea and enter through the east gate.and then take baths in the 22 tanks inside the temple and go for Darshan
2- If you are not interested in a bath in the sea you can even go for a bathing ritual at the 22 tanks inside the temple  and go for Darshan to the main shrine.The queue starts at the east gate for the 22 tanks also known as Agni Teertham
3-In case you are not going for the ritualistic bath (Agni Teertham), you can even go for Darshan straight(that is what we did)

A quick breakfast in front of the temple before starting for Dhanushkodi

Dhanushkodi-
I shall admit that I visited the place not so much  for  a pilgrimage as for the much heard of Dhanushkodi.
.  Dhanushkodi is the south eastern most tip of the island,and  it is believed that lord Rama had broken his bow here at the sea coast after the battle with Ravana and hence the name..Frankly I was interested in visiting Dhanushkodi to see the ruins of a huge cyclone which had hit the place on the sixties.Now those were things I had read about.But the very intriguing landscape there won over me completely .I had not seen a similar landscape before .As the bus proceeded towards the tip of this end of the island I could see the landscape slowly getting more and more barren .But within a few minutes of this ride waters of two seas started lining the landscape.We had the Indian ocean with its very aggressive waves to one side and the very quiet Bay of Bengal to the other side.The only habitation seen here was that of huts of the fishermen s village.

In brief ,Dhanushkodi is  a small strip of land with many tales to tell.
A cyclone in 1964 , devastated the entire township at the coast and killed nearly 2000 people .An entire train with passengers was washed away to the sea.A railway line connected Mandapan to Dhanushkodi at that time  no longer exists. The ruins of the once existing township ,like the remains of a water tank or  a church stand in the barren landscape as a testimony to it here.The cyclone had submerged much of this end of the island ,which was exposed for  a few minutes in 2004 again before the tsunami struck the coast.

How to reach Dhanushkodi
The tip of Dhanushkodi is about 15 kms. from the Ramanathaswamy temple.In case you are dependent on public transport ,buses ply at regular intervals and can be boarded from the temple gate.Bus number 3 takes you straight to Dhanushkodi .One can spend about an hour at Dhanushkodi and board another bus back.Till 2016 ,the road at Dhanushkodi was not good enough for buses to ply ,and the last few kms had to be travelled by a jeep .By the end of 2016 a proper pitched road has been constructed ending all travel woes.
The other option is that of an auto rickshaw ,which is very common at Rameshwaram ,the autorickshaw has to be hired with some bargaining . The autorickshaw has to wait at Dhanushkodi and bring you back to Rameshwaram.While negotiating it needs to be mentioned that the Autorickshaw will take you for a visit to the Bibhison (Ravana's brother) temple on the way

The waves of the Indian ocean at Dhanushkodi

I am standing here with the Bay Of Bengal in the background

A shack at the diversion for the Bibhison temple for some quick refreshments

Dhanushkodi through pictures

 
 

Then there are surprises awaiting everywhere.This tiny island was the home town of Dr.Abdul Kalam Azad .IT surprised me to think that a man of his stature had his very modest childhood ,and education here,considering it was so much more remote in those days.A memorial has been recently constructed here,as a tribute to the great man.(The memorial and Dr. Kalam's house are two different places.The house is not open to the Public since his family still lives there)

Dr.Abdul Kalam's Memorial

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The Bibhison Temple
This temple is located to the left of the road on the way to Dhanushkodi.We visited it on the way back .You shall get a big crowd and many shops in front of the temple.As you can see in the pic the fields lining the roads to the temple wore a whitish hue,It reminded me of the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat .Probably the sea water here had got land locked ,which evaporated to leave behind the salt.
As for the temple ,when seen from inside could be inferred as  quite an old one.The temple houses idols of Rama ,Sita, Laxmana and Bibhison .The priest at the temple enlightened us about the significance of the temple.According to him ,this was the place near the sea where Rama first met Bibhison. Lord Rama's entire army including Sugriv tried to convince Rama against accommodating Bibhison in his army .It was only Hanuman who was convinced that Bibhison was a saint and would mean no harm to them even if he was Ravana's brother.

The Bibhison Temple can be seen at the distance

An autoride through the breezy township

The autorickshaw is the best and the most convenient option to go around Rameshwram.The auto rickshaw can be hired for going around all the teerthams (small temples )all over Rameshwaram.The autorickshaws here have a different fare for each group of points to see .WE hired one to visit the  road bridge and
watch the trains passing over th Pamban bridge running parallely. On the way back we visited the Vilom Teertham and the memorial of Dr.Abdul Kalam Azad.WE paid about 500 rupees for this trip.

A steamer ride in the blue sea

We had plans to take a bath in the sea adjacent to the temple ,but we discarded our plans as the place seemed to be very crowded.You can definitely pay a visit to this place as this place as the remarkable thing here is that no waves are formed in this part of the sea.You can also enjoy a quick south Indian breakfast here at the many shacks around the shore and then go for  a steamer ride .My kids enjoyed the ride the  most .The view of the temple and the shore from the steamer is wonderful .I enjoyed the cool breeze and watched the fishing boats all around me.

The temple as seen from the steamer

The very appealing view from the streamer

A little bit of geography
Rameshwaram is located in the Pamban Island ,which is  an island in the east of the tip of peninsular India.This island can be spotted in the map of India as  a piece of land between India and Sri Lanka




  So the very first excitement lies in crossing the sea over a road bridge  and watching the Pamban bridge running parallely.The Pamban bridge is  a rail bridge and was the only connection to the island till.The most interesting part is that the rail bridge opens up when  a ship has to pass.

The Vilom Teertham
The Vilom Teertham is  a place where Rama is believed to have struck the arrow into the ground in the sea to quench Sitas thirst.So even in the midst of salty sea water he could get fresh water for his beloved wife.So there is  a well marking the place.THis place can be reached on the way back from the bridge(it is close to the bridge).

What we enjoyed is the time spent in the adjoining sea water.I would not suggest  a dip here . Few could be seen taking  a dip ,possibly because the sea bed was very coarse with rough edgy pebbles.

The sea from the bridge

The best connectivity to Rameshwarm is from Madurai.It is the nearest biggest town in the mainland of India. Also as Madurai is  a religious place,one can plan  a stay here and visit the Meenakshi temple too. Madurai is well connected by rail, road and airways,to the rest of the country.From madurai one can board a train to Rameshwaram .I am suggesting this ,since the train crosses the Pamban Bridge ,which can be an expirience in itself.
Otherwise,their are ample options for road transport which take an average of 3 to 4 hours.

Stay at Rameshwaram 
The best option would be to stay at the Tamil Nadu Tourism Property,which can be booked online.It is located right at the shore,there are many cottages too to get an excellent view of the ocean.Apart from this ,their are numerous other options around the Ramanathaswamy Temple.


A stay of three days and two nights are enough for a visit to this island. Rameshwarm is best visited in the winters.Though the place is very breezy due to the sea,it can get very hot in the summer months.

Talakadu ...... the city buried in sand

       Mysore beckoned us once again, this time with a different story, and we were soon on the way to land  of myths and tales .......About a three hours drive ,away from the hustle of the city of Bangalore,on the outskirts of Mysore ,lies this small desert like town of Talakadu.

    The road had been green so far  since we had taken  the deviation from the highway . Then the sign boards slowly started getting  visible . We were the first people to visit the place that day as we reached there at about 9 in the morning.We sighted a temple  close to the parking and  decided to visit it later. First a temple and then a pond in an enclosure ,we had not yet caught up with the barrenness of the place. But  a few metres of walk and we realised why Talakadu is said to have turned into a desert town.





       ..As you walk to the other temples all you can see around are sand dunes .Our feet sank into the sand as we walked The path to the other temples all within the radius of 1 km ,was covered with an asbestos sheet . ,The scene around us, I felt was quite  a mismatch ..sand dunes with eucalyptus and cashew nut trees !!!!!!

 


History and folklore


  Talakadu has since a long time attracted many tourists due to the folklore it is associated with.It is said that a vibrant city once existed at this place  ,as it was the capital of the Ganga dynasty.Power changed hands and Talakadu was ruled by the Cholas and the Hoysalas before it was taken over by the Vijaynagara kings .

     When the  minister  of the Vijaynagara  kings, Sri Ranga Raya  who was in charge of Srirangapatnam  fell ill the Wodeyars of Mysore established their stronghold over this place .Sri Ranga Rayas  wife ,Alamelamma possesed some jewellery which she did not wish to hand over to the Wodeyars .She was chased by the soldiers of the Wodeyars ..when she ultimately threw the jewellry into the river Cauvery and  jumped into the waters .As she gave up her life she laid three curses ..on this land .  The first one being "Let the land of Talakadu , which they wished to posses ,become a desert" .The second "Let the river Malangi become a whirlpool ."and the third "Let the Wodeyars remain heir less in every generation". Ironically ,the place got filled up with sand in due course of time ,the river Malangi has very strong currents flowing,  and the kings of Mysore bear a lineage of many adopted heirs.

     Our long walk had almost come to an end (walking through the sand made it appear longer than what it actually was.)We could see the tip of the shrine of a temple from a distance as the temple was excavated out of sand .The major part of the temple was below ground level.

        

 In fact this was the case with all the temples here,...the temples which were centuries old were all excavated out of the sand ,and were barred from getting buried once again with walls around them. The archaeological department  is doing a commendable job ,by making every effort to keep these temples from getting buried .Efforts of the afforestation department could be seen ,the place now has a good green covering ,even though they are  trees growing on sand.

There were five temples in all,each of which was a Shiva temple ,but the one which was the best in terms of craftsmanship and sculpture was the Vaidyanatheswara temple

The   Vaidyanatheswara temple

A stone chain carved out of a single stone at the Vaidyanatheswara temple

Architecture

   The Vaidyesheswara temple was the one which had  mixed features  of the Ganga ,Hoysala ,and  Chola  dynasty and was the only temple which was not covered by sand.
All the five temples are Shiva temples that are excavated are in worship  and a  fair named Panchalinga Darshana takes place here every 12 years.It is said that there are nearly thirty more temples that lay buried in here


    No matter how appreciable the workmanship of the temples were, I could not keep myself away from the fascinating   folklore of this place. Researches had told that in the fourteenth century one of the ministers of the Vijaynagara kings had built a dam on the  river  flowing adjacently,thus changing the course of the river, consequently exposing the river bed .Over a period of time the strong winds have blown the sand to the neighboring bank,gradually burying the place under  metres of sand.
  Another theory says that a geological fault line runs across the Cauvery here.The east side of the river subsided resulting in a pool, which explains the whirlpool as cursed by the queen.So with these facts, myth takes a backseat and rationality wins.However the third curse by the queen could not be  explained and so the mystery of Talakadu remains unresolved.Though I heard the explanations and was convinced to a large extent ,but deep down, I still wanted to believe that the curses were responsible for Talakadu's fate.
   

      In a nutshell ,Talakadu is a place where one can visit temples , go for a coracle ride in the Cauvery and enjoy birdwatching,  ,gaze at the amazing craftsmanship of the people of the bygone era or simply stroll with your feet deep in the sand ,and listen to stories of an unrelenting widow ,whose cries still resonate among the sands of Talakadu

Colonel Bailey's Dungeon,Srirangapatnam

   A stone's throw away from Srirangapatnam railway station lies Colonel Bailey's Dungeon.This is perhaps the least noticed and least visited place of the many places of interest in Srirangapatnam.
     Srirangapatnam is an island formed by the Cauvery as the river bifurcates forming this island and again meets at Sangam. The entire place of Srirangapatnam is dotted with such monuments which speak about the life and struggles of the Tiger of Mysore and it also urges us to know more about our struggle for freedom.
   The small town of Srirangapatnam was once the capital city of the great Tipu ,and is also the place which witnessed the 4 Mysore wars.  It goes without saying that it was the  hub of many political activities in the 18 th century ,  many scars of which are still visible,at this place...Colonel Bailey's Dungeon is one such place which was used to keep  British prisoners of war captive during the four Mysore wars.

     Hyder Ali and then his son Tipu Sultan both  had tried to bar the British extend their empire to the south.It wasn't an easy task  though  ,as the British had already joined hands with the Nizams and the Maratha.

In the war of   Pollilur   , Colonel Bailey and his troops were defeated by Tipu ,and the British officer was held captive here till he breathed his last in 1782.  Later many more British high ranking officials were held captive here like   Captain Baird and Rulay and Colonel Sampson  and Frazer.

   The dungeon, as you can see in the picture above are built a few metres below the ground level ,this was probably so ,to keep it away from view and to make it easier for the sentries to keep watch over the prisoners.  Every effort was made to make the place completely inaccessible to any outsider ,as the stairs we used to go down to the dungeon also did not exist then ,it was made only for the convenience of the tourists. The  four stone slabs that can be seen at the distance on the wall were the  ones used to enter and leave this place

  Once inside, it looks like this with domed archways and walls on all sides. The clean interiors do not speak much of the morbid state it used to be in the past.This place used to be filled three fourth with water in those days ,with captives chained to the walls. It was only in the recent years that the place was cleaned up and painted before a visit by the President Sri Abdul Kalam Azad

That's my husband giving a demonstration of how the captives were chained to the stone blocks and dunked in water for hours 

The picture above shows the holes on the stone blocks through which the captives were chained to the walls. When observed closely ,the place is full of such small details  which substantiate the purpose of this place, that it is not difficult for one to get illusions of prisoners chained and tortured here during the wars.

  The most interesting thing inside the dungeon is the huge wrought iron canon lying right at the centre of it. There are many theories explaining its presence there ,according to some ,the canon rolled out of its place and fell through the roof while Tipu was waging a war against the British,while other theories explain that the canon was always kept there but during a bombardment a bomb fell straight through the roof and chipped off a portion of it .Very aptly, for both explanations the roof has an open portion just above it.

The mark left on the canon probably by the bomb

It is so said that the bomb was actually targeted at Tipu ,as the British had expected him to be here at that time ,but fortunately he was not  present in the dungeon.

The above picture shows an opening

 in one corner of the dungeon,which was later discovered as the entry to a secret tunnel connecting the dungeon to the palace. Secret tunnels have always fascinated me,and this one could not stop me from thinking that Tipu made surprise visits to this place through this tunnel.

And guess what is this ...probably the place in the wall which was used to fill the dungeon with water from the Cauvery ,at least that is how our guide put it.

The captives here were prisoners  of war and so security was very important,the openings on the walls above the dungeon to keep watch and to fire the canons from.

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 The first picture above shows openings on the walls for firing bullets at any attackers but very interestingly   I got this  second picture when I placed the camera inside the hole.....it had three openings to shoot at different directions...hats off to the  military  ingenuity of those days.

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 The dungeon was very strategically built,  the river Cauvery formed a natural moat behind the it .This river must have been more voluminous before the dams were built. The dungeon  which in itself was a small fortress was located inside the fort of the ruler ,needless to say the importance it had for the Sultan!

                Keeping Indian rulers and Sepoy captive by the British was a routine affair during the British rule,but a place built exclusively to keep  British prisoners of war  captive by  an Indian ruler somewhat induces  a sense of pride in us.

Tipu was well known for his valour and his military ingenuity   , his rockets had not failed to awe the British. The relatively simple  brick and mortar structure which we had just visited, actually stood in silent testimony to the same valour and the mettle that was so quintessential of Tipu Sultan.

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Srirangapatnam is located about 14 kms from Mysore and 125 kms from Bangalore and lies on the Mysore Bangalore highway.It is very well connected by rail and road ,there are also buses plying regularly to Mysore from Bangalore.The dungeon lies very close to the railway station ,one can visit the Ranganatha Swamy temple ,which is only half a km from this place.The place where Tipu's body was found is also very well marked and lies very close to this place.  Srirangapatnam is generally visited from Mysore as a one day  trip, though there are very good boarding options here itself .We stayed at the KSTDC property ,Mayura River View about 2 kms away.