Well, it was not exactly in the sky, but it felt as if it was when one looked out of the window and saw nothing but ethereal mist, or when it cleared, the tops of green covered peaks just melting into the dreamy mist and the sky above. The story follows.

The last quarter of Twenty Twenty-Two saw a flurry of activity in my home. It was travel time all the way, almost like making up for Covid times when we all had to be home bound by default. September saw us flying to Belgrade, November to Bhubaneswar. I was not yet done writing about those trips when I found myself packing my bags once again, this time to attend the literature festival in Bangalore.

The year end saw me rush off to Chennai for my visa renewal (Yeah USA, here I come!) and from there once again to dear old Bangalore (‘Dear old Bangalore’ inspite of the killing traffic jams!) to join the daughter-in-law and her parents on a holiday to the hills. Destination Coonoor was planned and executed entirely by the daughter in law, bless her.

I have been to Ooty a couple of decades back, but not to Coonoor. The former wasn’t as enchanting to me as everyone made it out to be. But Coonoor was a different story, not the town itself which was noisy and congested, but the place where we stayed. So pristine, so breathtakingly beautiful, so high up in the clouds. It was like living in a magical land of mist. Coonoor itself is 6000 plus feet above sea level and the place where we stayed was still higher.

It was cold as hell for tropical beings like the L&M and I. To complicate matters it rained bringing the temperature down even further. But the lovely villa overlooking the Selas valley where we spent the three days made up for it. We did go around for a bit one day to the Dolphin’s Nose and other places of interest, almost lunched at the place where Kapoor and Sons (a Bollywood movie for those not in the know) was shot but had to give up the opportunity because the wait for a table was too long. Instead we ended up at the Open Kitchen gorging on tasty pizzas served by a cheerful Poirot look-alike.

Here are some pictures painting a better picture than my words. A beautifull end to the year. Now, I wish you all a wonderful New Year. May it be the best in all respects! This year I have not been able to blog (or read your posts, my apologies!) as much as I wished. Hoping the coming year will see me visiting you all more, and of course blogging ….and boring you all more. 😉

© Shail Mohan 2022