I was fascinated with Toda hamlets , their religion and culture. And i made a point to visit their temple in Ooty in Nilgiri hills of India, which is the only place where Todas survive now. A mere 2000 people in the world, nestled in the lush green serenity of Nilgiris.
Me and my friend visited a toda temple which is at the end of Botanical garden. You will need to hike for a kilometer to see this ancient yet magnificent site. Good part is , this is hardly crowded. You can sit, guess at the symbols used in Toda temples and enjoy the view of ancient cultures. Honestly, it isnt less than any ancient site like a Stonehenge. Personally, i am not fond of comparing places, but just to give you a feel.
By luck, we met a Toda guy who invited us for a marriage in his community.
As we started, we parked our car at the main road en route Glenmorgan dam and started following the guy in the forest. Deep insides of forest. This is the only time where we ventured inside the jungles , not for pictures or beauty or for nature. But to meet people who actually live there. Can you believe it! We just cross those jungles, on our high speed vehicles. We just go on the well paved trekking paths which never tell us this pure beauty which actually resides there.
A 20 minute journey, crossing bridges, slopes, downhills, muddy waters. We saw few houses where kids were dancing at the roof. Their houses looked exactly the same as ours!A lot of them knew English as well. I felt a pang of home, seeing how similarly people lived in every part of the world. Be it a hamlet or jungle or city. Of course, inspired by Bollywood, we were expecting a different kind of people, with different kind of food habits and clothing. But they were just so similar. Smiling faces, people busy with marriage work, welcoming us with open hearts.
People were very happy to see us, they welcomed us whole heartedly. They informed us that the marriage will happen on top of a hill. We again crossed carrots farms, grasslands and muddy waters. We were better off without our slippers and we continued our journey as Toda people did.
We reached the top of the hill and saw two different groups of coteries. At one side were ladies standing under the shade of trees and umbrellas protecting their saris from the rains. At another side were two groups of men and women dancing on their cultural songs. Everyone was wearing a same piece of shawl depicting which side they belonged to. We met a lot of people. Some were nurses, some were farmers, some were teachers! Again, my tryst with similarity of life wherever you choose to look at.
The groom came in after some rituals and met his bride, where we noticed she was pregnant. There, we were told and they were already married for an year and this is the celebration of the baby. For them, marriage is a low key affair but fertility , new life is a celebration.
We were treated with delicious vegetarian Toda food. The experience is still so vivid in my mind. among the jungles, with the actual people who have lived their lives, welcoming us open heartedtly, telling us their stories of happiness and stories of grief of low rates of carrots. we loved every minute there and now whenever i will pass the jungles from highways, i will feel that a very similar life exist inside.
If you wish to see a small glimpse - check out this video
https://youtu.be/sPFCkROYWXc
Me and my friend visited a toda temple which is at the end of Botanical garden. You will need to hike for a kilometer to see this ancient yet magnificent site. Good part is , this is hardly crowded. You can sit, guess at the symbols used in Toda temples and enjoy the view of ancient cultures. Honestly, it isnt less than any ancient site like a Stonehenge. Personally, i am not fond of comparing places, but just to give you a feel.
By luck, we met a Toda guy who invited us for a marriage in his community.
As we started, we parked our car at the main road en route Glenmorgan dam and started following the guy in the forest. Deep insides of forest. This is the only time where we ventured inside the jungles , not for pictures or beauty or for nature. But to meet people who actually live there. Can you believe it! We just cross those jungles, on our high speed vehicles. We just go on the well paved trekking paths which never tell us this pure beauty which actually resides there.
A 20 minute journey, crossing bridges, slopes, downhills, muddy waters. We saw few houses where kids were dancing at the roof. Their houses looked exactly the same as ours!A lot of them knew English as well. I felt a pang of home, seeing how similarly people lived in every part of the world. Be it a hamlet or jungle or city. Of course, inspired by Bollywood, we were expecting a different kind of people, with different kind of food habits and clothing. But they were just so similar. Smiling faces, people busy with marriage work, welcoming us with open hearts.
People were very happy to see us, they welcomed us whole heartedly. They informed us that the marriage will happen on top of a hill. We again crossed carrots farms, grasslands and muddy waters. We were better off without our slippers and we continued our journey as Toda people did.
We reached the top of the hill and saw two different groups of coteries. At one side were ladies standing under the shade of trees and umbrellas protecting their saris from the rains. At another side were two groups of men and women dancing on their cultural songs. Everyone was wearing a same piece of shawl depicting which side they belonged to. We met a lot of people. Some were nurses, some were farmers, some were teachers! Again, my tryst with similarity of life wherever you choose to look at.
The groom came in after some rituals and met his bride, where we noticed she was pregnant. There, we were told and they were already married for an year and this is the celebration of the baby. For them, marriage is a low key affair but fertility , new life is a celebration.
We were treated with delicious vegetarian Toda food. The experience is still so vivid in my mind. among the jungles, with the actual people who have lived their lives, welcoming us open heartedtly, telling us their stories of happiness and stories of grief of low rates of carrots. we loved every minute there and now whenever i will pass the jungles from highways, i will feel that a very similar life exist inside.
If you wish to see a small glimpse - check out this video
https://youtu.be/sPFCkROYWXc
