Hunting Lodge

I finally met my friend who was waiting at Thatneri, It had stopped raining as we walked downhill to the cottage, we spotted a few spidey's and bull frogs on the way to finally reach the place. It was dark but the silhouette of the Nilgiris opposite the cottage is just spell binding, we are at the center of a hill overlooking the landscape. Ooty is to the other side of the hills facing the Hunting Lodge, the flickering lights of vehicles on the Ooty road look magical as they ascend the hills. The traffic comes to a standstill at 9, though the vegetable trucks can be seen tackling the curves. Its suddenly night and there is a lull about the place.. that's when the silence sets in, only to be broken by the music from wind chimes, creating a sense mystery about this place.

I can feel the cold now, I have to wear slippers to keep myself warm, as we sipped on some hot coffee, Vasu spoke bout the tusker who visits the cottage, and the last sighting was the morning of the day I arrived. How I wish would be lucky enough to see him too, Im gonna be around, so hopefully I would get to meet " Sadhu".

I had only eaten in the morning and was quite hungry, and talking bout food, the freshest of fruits and vegetables are grown right here on the hills, so im in for a treat :-P. After an awesome dinner of spicy rajma and paratas. I found myself a nice corner to look at the mist covered mountains beyond and listen to a waterfall somewhere in the distance with a smoke. Ah.. can it get more peaceful than this. Yes it can, said my friend, just wait for the day to break.

My space here is a lovely room with a window which opens out to the valley, a cosy little room which would be home for a week. I was reading More Twisted by Jeffrey Deaver, a collection of short stories which is quite riveting. I just wanted to catch up on a few pages before i crashed. I heard something, a flutter of wings, and there it was. a bat flying right across my face, I ducked under the blanket, only to lift my head out in a bit and whooosh again.. the bat just missed my face, I stayed longer inside the blanket this time around and slowly crept to shut the lights and close one door, keeping one open so it could fly out. I could hear it flutter around for a while before it flew out but not before giving me a.... " Welcome to the Hunting Lodge" look :-D