Deep gorges and undulating mountains bathed in a range of flora and mist define the breathtakingly beautiful Kodaikanal. I wonder how many caves and caverns remain unexplored and frankly they are better off unknown.

Kodaikanal gave me an unforgettable experience. It was when we were walking downhill on a precarious slope somewhere in the vicinity of the Pillar Rocks. It was late afternoon but sunlight did not reach this unnamed rocky mountain. We were higher up and only mist faced us. We were treading on the mountain by foot. Then at a specific point, our host asked us to stop for if we had moved even a few more steps further, we would have rolled down into steep stones and dense forests ending our lives. Fear itself would have killed us. Yet at that moment like never felt before, it felt very calm. We sat there for a while looking at emptiness and mist rolling on our faces. Seated on those age-old rocks, it felt like heaven on earth. For some moments, I was speechless and thoughtless, my mind went totally blank. About 40 minutes later, we were back on the roads and sunlight reflected on our vehicle.

Coaker’s Walk offers a panoramic view of mountains covered with abundant and dense forests. You can walk along the long pathway munching carrots and freshly boiled groundnuts. Sometimes clouds block your vision of the beautiful mountainous views from the path.

While the Guna Caves are not the only caves in the hill station, I am sure there are many more unexplored caves, maybe even unknown.

The majestic trio of Pillar Rocks; the centrally located, man-made Berijam lake; Shola and the Silver Cascade waterfalls are other attractive spots to visit in Kodai. The Bryant Park is filled with a huge variety of magnificent trees. At the Shembaganur Museum of Natural History, I was enthralled seeing the remnant of an ancient Monkey Puzzle tree.

My favourite spot is the Suicide Point where your eyes need to travel deep down and down the mountains to fathom their unknown depths! What a construct of nature! I know for a moment, nature can throw us, destroy us.

Obsessed with our own plastic lives, we are far away from comprehending nature’s profoundness, neither the wisdom of the eons old rocks and trees. They stand solemn and do their work restfully. They are powerful, even timeless. Untouched by humans, they flourish. The moment we humans inhabit, we ruin nature without realizing that we are murdering Gods, the wisest forms of life that have watched and lived on this earth for thousands of years, much before we even existed, and those into whom our ashes will merge in and get sucked.

It is such a sin to cut down a tree! Despite all our advanced sciences, we still have no capability to communicate with nature.

The splendor of nature at Kodaikanal reminded me that I should never feel low about anything in life. Everything has its own course and every being finds own way. Continue to do your work just as how nature is engrossed in its work.

Some day the cells of my body will become part of a stone, or a lovely flower, maybe an undisturbed mountain that nourishes the healing trees that grow over it, or maybe in a joyfully flowing river, calm sometimes, turbulent other times.

The crisp air of the mountains and the mist haven’t left me.
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Photo by Preethi RB on Unsplash