Second Lodge

Chapter 5

One week after Mercy"s funeral I convinced Riya to move to the hills, it would make her mind less engaged from her departed mother"s memories. Daniel was happy when I said, I am ready to take over the farm. He gave me a black Ford Endeavour. The days were closing towards winter; evergreen trees had their beauty maintained all round the year. As we meandered through the ghat road in our black beast it was almost dawn, the nature was unexplainably beautiful, the sun was yet to come through the eastern slope of western ghats, Riya was in deep sleep while I pulled out the vehicle to have a cup of tea. Fog had almost covered the path, valley below was covered with clouds. The winding roads uphill was shrouded by silky white fog, I thought the pathway through the tarmac lead to heaven, I am going to start a new life with my love in that heaven. We reached Munnar at 9:30 AM, Mr. Lawrence Prabhakar our company"s liaison in Munnar was there expecting me at hotel Highrange Manor Mr.Lawrence was a stout dark man with thick mustache on his face, he was fluent in Malayalam and Tamil but his English was inarticulate. We had our breakfast in an ostentatious restaurant, as winter approaches the inflow of tourist would always see a decrease. While having steaming idlee and sambar, we had some trivial talks, but Riya was quiet, she was enjoying her food and coffee.

“Shall we move to Mist valley, or do you prefer to stay here for couple of days?” Lawrence asked me. I looked Riya and she was not showing any interest in her face. “How far is Mist valley?” I asked.

“40 kilometer, one and half hour journey from here, for about 15 kilometers the road is inside forest, at night forest department will close the road. Evening six to morning six it will be closed”. He said.

“Ok Lawrence we will go to mist valley, we will visit munnar another time”.

Riya had no objections, she was silent, her silence made me uneasy. We crossed Mattupetty. All around was beauty of Kannan devan hills, green lush of tea plantation, beautiful site of Kundla lake. After a hour journey we reached the forest checkpost, from there we had to travel fifteen kilometers inside the reserve forest. It was thick and stood like a green filter of solar radiation, sun rays peeping through foliage fell irregularly upon tarmac, forest held a sinister darkness in its heart. Riya enjoyed the ride through forest and her enthusiasm hiked when she spotted a Malabar giant squirrel, the tree rodent was of abnormal size when compared to common squirrel, its shiny thick red coat made it very attractive. She wanted to stop and see the beauty of wild, but Lawrence didn’t appreciate, I didn’t want to overrule his judgment as he knew the place much better. We came out of the reserve forest to encounter another check post; the forest personnel didn’t care about our vehicle as they saw Lawrence in it. We diverted our way from main road to enter estate road, Yellapetty estate was well known for its tea depot. The road became narrow and narrow as we move forward.

The green lush of plantation began to wane, we saw the road becoming ricketier and gravels separated from bitumen. We crossed an arch standing on two giant pillars made out of locally quarried granite blocks and with great difficultly I could read the writings engraved on the right pillar, “MIST VALLEY ESTATES”. Gate was ruined to rust grains, but I could imagine a huge cast iron gate once fastened with thick hinges attached to the pillars.

We had entered the premises of the Mist valley estate, which my company had purchased to convert into an eco resort and tourist village. 300 acres of abandoned tea estate and 28000 square feet colonial mansion. It was 650 acres when the mist valley established in 1902. More than 100 acres of land was attached to Yellapetty estate, 150 acres annexed by government after independence.

An old church appeared on a mound. There were withered steps leading to the top. It was a small chapel. Mr.lawrence briefed me about the chapel, it was built by the colonial Protestants, there were no regular congregation after the end of British raj. The catholic diocese took over the property after independence and converted it into a catholic church, they could not move ahead with the monastery in the Mist valley and the chapel was abandoned for a long time. Narrow road after the chapel lead us to a path paved with cobble stones where grasses and mosses peeping out from the intersections, either side of the path had silver oaks. There was a gate mounted on not so elegant pillars, it was not locked. Mr. Lawrence walked and opened it widely, the cobblestone path still continued, now guarded by thick tea bush. Tea bush looked green but they were not enslaved, they were free, wildly grown like a stubborn shrub. After semi circling a large meadow, we reached the Mansion, I am not an architecture enthusiast but the Mansion was outstanding, it was huge, one of the best Victorian mansions ever built in the country by the British. Twenty-eight thousand square feet mansion was the main attraction of our mist valley project. The mansion was really an unexplored tourist attraction in the state, it was not shown in any movies. The remoteness made it really a secluded place. The mansion was built on a mound, so the place surrounding appeared like a shallow valley, thick Pine forest made a natural fence to the property from three directions. I parked my vehicle and Riya was curiously inspecting the meadows. The meadow was not in good condition the renewal work had not reached till lawn grooming. Mr.Lawrence held a bunch of keys in his hand and opened the front door, which was huge indeed. Lawrence shared the bad news about a court stay over the construction of resort. Some environmental activist who moved litigation against Mist Valley project, alleged usurpation of forest land by the company, court ordered an investigation, until then all construction activity should be stopped. But this would not affect my assignment the farm was ten kilometers away from the estate. I was reluctant to stay in the mansion. Lawrence assured no ban in staying, only construction and renovation has been banned by the court. There is no dispute about the ownership of mansion, but the construction of tourist village has been debated considering the place as ecologically fragile zone. We entered in to that imposing vintage mansion, once dwelled by the wealthy European planters and their families. The foyer had wooden floor and painted ceiling, the edges joining the ceiling and wall was adorned with plaster works, the withered one had been replaced with emulations but still a trained eye could distinguish the difference. On the left side there was a huge room and once meant for living space and entertaining the guests. On the right side a room with slightly smaller dimension than that on the left remained empty and would have been used as a dining room. The assumption was true as we spotted a door which lead to the kitchen and further to the nook and back yard. Five other rooms in the ground floor were locked and served no special purpose. The kitchen was huge and had big store room attached to it. The first floor had six rooms, thirteen big rooms and a dozen of small rooms and aisles made the mansion quite fatiguing to explore. “The maid will join tomorrow”. Lawrence said “That will be perfect”. I said. We ascended the stairs which was in the middle of the foyer and reached the first floor most of the rooms were locked. I asked Lawrence, why most of the rooms were locked? he said renovation has not been done to each and every room and still most of it were remaining to be repaired. We saw a small room in the east corner which I thought would give a scenic view of pine forest and distant hills. The view from the room was indeed breath taking, endless sea of pines and birches spread across the valley with haunting serenity, humongous silhouette of Western Ghats bordered the eastern horizon with its leviathan arms stretched all over.