Cooing in Coonoor

An old joke about cooing in Coonoor and wooing in (W)Ooty is what triggered the title. But our purpose this time was not one of the above. It was simply chilling. There were five of us, classmates from MBA days at Bangalore, who formed the chillar party, or the chilling brigade. Starting out in Bangalore, we headed out to Ooty, enroute to Coonoor, which was to be our abode. Discovering that the Ooty Gymkhana Golf Club was on the way, three of us decided to play there. We had a great time, and proceeded to Coonoor in the evening. Temperatures were actually quite pleasant, contrary to what we thought they would be.

Walks, talks, card games, and eating out at various places is what we indulged ourselves in, with a bit of Single Malt to keep us company. We also managed to get a sketch of ours done by an artist in one of the restaurants we had gone to (we HAD formally learnt management, after all).

On day 2, we played golf at the beautiful Wellington Golf Club near Coonoor. As we wound our way across the course, I had a Hole-in-one on the no. 5 hole, which is a steep upward hit. Unbelievable! Many people go through a lifetime of golf without getting one, chances of making one being statistically very slim. After this, of course, we had to celebrate, and we did-at the Taj Gateway, overlooking the valley.

                                                         Picking up after the Hole-in-one, above.

All in all, it was a great combination-both Tee and Tea in the tea country of Nilgiris, and I look forward to 2017 being different, and NEW.

Bangalore and Kodaikanal Musings

This time Bangalore was memorable for a meeting with Gowri and Sreeram, students I taught at IMT Nagpur a few years ago. I remember Gowri interviewing me for the student newsletter as I joined IMT. They are now husband and wife, and we had a catching-up session at a nice place - Green Theory? Sreeram is a budding author, and his first book is due soon. Also went to The City Institute with friends - it is a very old club, not an academic institute. Good ambience for a chat and a drink.

Golf is a strange game. It gives you a chance to be a Buddha, meditate while you play. It is also a game for the young and the old ('budhdha' in Hindi). You can get better at it only through hard work, and slip back into mediocrity without much hard work- it's easy. My ex-colleagues from IMT Nagpur, Vijayakumar and Gadgil, were co-conspirators,  who went to Kodaikanal with me. This was a repeat trip after last year. Had  a great time, with some good golfing and some bad. Made a par and a birdie on day 3, and a hole-in-one on the steep uphill 17th on day 4. Celebrated with a beer at the 19th.

Met a few intrepid lady golfers from Poona Golf Club there in Kodai, one of whom battled a leg injury and played! Also met a young lady who works in advertising from Chennai who was on a holiday with her kids. We took the kids around in a golf cart and they were really thrilled.

Stayed at the Sterling valley view in Kodaikanal,

which has a nicer ambience than the lakeside property we had stayed in last year. Pic no. 1 is that view.

The KSRTC bus from Kodai to Bangalore was bang on time, but the flight from Bangalore to Pune was late by a full hour!

Golf and The Hole in One

Those who golf (and some who don't) are aware of how difficult it is to score a hole-in-one. That means getting your ball in the hole in just one shot, as opposed to the usual three or four or five that is 'par' for a hole. It was exciting to watch young Anirban Lahiri, an Indian player do it yesterday at the ongoing British Open tournament. Seeing it happen is almost as rare as getting one yourself.

Incidentally, a lot of the usual stars are struggling in this tournament. They include Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson, and Tiger Woods. Snedeker was leading when I watched, with a minus 10 (10 strokes less than total par so far in three rounds of 18 holes each), an amazing score in tough conditions.

Jeev Milkha Singh is also struggling here, though he just won the Scottish Open a couple of weeks ago. Well, golf is an accurate reflection of life. By the way, if any potential customers are reading this, Golftripz, a company run by friends who take Indian golfers out to play are organising in October, a golf tour to Thailand. You can look up their website, www.golftripz.com for more on that if you are interested. I may go too.

A postscript on this is that Ernie Els won while Scott, the overnight leader (it was not Snedeker, he lost the lead after day 2) self-destructed. Absorbing viewing.