Blue Mountain

The colonial influence in Kotagiri in the Nilgiri hills, with flowing plantations, horseback riding over misty hills, and steaming cups of tea, is like the memory in a faded photograph from another time—beautiful, alluring and calling you to come visit.

- Gustasp And Jeroo Irani

In January 1819, John Sullivan, the Collector of Coimbatore, had trekked up the Nilgiris with a band of soldiers, elephants and ponies, navigating deep forests and precipitous cliffs, some say in search of outlaws. What he found were not fearsome bandits but a mist-laden sylvan valley that reminded him of a soft Swiss landscape in spring.

Over two centuries later, the resemblance is less obvious as the vale is smothered in the iridescent green of tea plantations and vegetable gardens, which Sullivan subsequently introduced during his stay in this peaked and folded land of green glades. And Kotagiri in the softly moulded Nilgiris or Blue Mountains as the Brits called them, unfurled a green carpet welcome as we drove into Teanest Nightingale, a boutique guesthouse.

Over a stay of three days in this four-room, 120-year-old cottage, with a pitched tiled roof and an earthy-red façade matched by vintage interiors, we perfected the art of escaping from the world. We had the intimate little guesthouse, with its cosy rooms named after local birds, all to ourselves as there was just one other family there at the time.

Indeed, Kotagiri is a quiet getaway with a certain lack of pretension. It is the oldest and smallest of the three Nilgiri hill stations, which include Ooty and Coonoor. This is not a place for butler-drawn bubble baths and white glove service but a haven where one can plug into nature and an inner reservoir of peace. From our private sit-out, we watched each newly minted dawn, the sun tiptoe across the sky even as the tinkling of bells from a nearby temple and sonorous chanting would often wake us up to days full of promise. Suddenly, birdsong would overlay the soft chanting and flood our senses like an invading army.