A walk in the woods

Since childhood, many of us have seen several movie actors and actresses running or walking around the age-old pine trees. And I believe most of us were fascinated by the location that made us feel like visiting there right away. Even I was a victim of this enchanting place, which automatically found a place on my bucket list. I always found the destination dreamy, mysterious, and surreal, not because of the fake smoke generated to portray the cloud nine situation in a movie scene or song but because of the abundant nature that it had to offer.

 

I think my love for nature began looking at those nature-filled scenes or songs. Because in a typical way, the director showed humongous tree trunks, followed by canopies mingling in the sky, the walkways travelling through trees, and then a beautiful lake passing by. The simple scene showcased so much about the surroundings laden with beauty. 

My rendezvous with this dreamy destination happened when my wife and I recently visited the Queen of hill station – Udagamandalam; popularly known as Ooty. After reaching, we hired a car from our hotel tour manager, whose driver took us to the famous shooting site - Pine Tree Forest, which is only a 20-minute drive from Ooty. Before getting down from the car, the driver in his broken Hindi told us that many Hindi movies were shot here, including Raaz, Raja Hindustani, Sadma, Dil, etc. It was fun listening to his great information as we were going to experience the location shortly.

 

The site was cool as a cucumber because the sun rays couldn’t find a route to reach the Earth floor, as the curtain of canopies held them back.

 

At the entrance, there is a wooden signboard - Pine Forest hung on a huge pine tree. When we stood beneath the board, we saw the surreal location in reality for the first time. We saw a hill slope where more than 100 pine trees standing in tandem. Some of them are 1000-year-old, but most of them are almost 4000-year-old. Now, that’s astounding!

 As we climbed down the slope, we found it slippery. The pebbles beneath were in a mood to pull us down. We carefully moved forward, gauging our steps, escaping the little stones and the pine tree roots throughout the route. The tentacles of those roots were so strong that no power could pull it an inch. But my belief had to be kept aside as there was a huge tree lying on the floor that couldn’t stand the test of time. Even if the tree got uprooted, it seemed full of life, like that person whose positive energy gets reflected on the face even after death. 

We kept walking through the lanes of those naturally orderly planted pine trees and reached the nearby Sandy Nulla Lake. The lake was calm like an enlightened mind, where people were busy taking photographs and making memories. We also decided to make some. 

 

My eyes then fell on the Nilgiri trees on the other side of the water body overlooking the lake and Pine tree forest. They seemed grand but not as giant as the Pine.

 

I looked at the Pine trees in awe and then at the Nilgiri trees, which made me think, did the Nilgiris ever ask the Pines about their ancestors? Or did the Pines tell the Nilgiris bedtime stories? Because 4000-year is a long span and over that period, the Pines must have witnessed the rise & fall of Rajas, Maharajas, Dynasties, Companies, Flora, Fauna, and more.

 

I think some answers are impossible to be discovered but what I found while walking back in the woods were small pine tree fruits lying on the Earth floor, waiting for the rains to come, and soon discovering themselves as the next generation pine tree.