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Wood and water
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Tada: Beyond the notoriety lies a place of beauty, writes PRINCE FREDERICK
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Tada can bring only one of two things to mind or both. First, a draconian piece of anti-terrorism legislation, which was scrapped and now replaced by another. Second, a small town that lies on the National Highway a hundred kilometres north of Chennai and which has a notorious reputation for what a colleague described as the two Ws (wine and women, in case you haven't figured this out).
My brief lies a little beyond Tada — in the Sathyavedu range of hills that span out some 20 kilometres or so from this unfortunately named town. For reasons of convenience, these hills are loosely referred to as Tada by tourists and others.
Having set out from Chennai in a bus to Varadaiahpalyam (5 km from Tada), I hire a cab - in reality a jeep as nothing less than a sturdy vehicle will do on what is an apology for a road - to make the journey to the foothills. My cabbie Balakrishnan - who, as one might expect in a border area, speaks Tamil and Telugu and sometimes an incomprehensible mix of both - understands what I want. Cabbies often double as guides here and, as a result, have acquired more than a working knowledge of the area.
His Mahindra jeep rolls past a soothing verdant countryside. At the Forest Department checkpost, the tar road gives way to a narrow pathway and in time the hills roll out like an uneven carpet, wooded and replete with shimmering streams that glide over smooth and colourful pebbles. The locals say that the streams emerge from gushing perennial springs and refer to them as "ubbulu madugu" (boiling rivulets).
I see tourists as I trek uphill. Some of them are whole families, the adults sitting or cooking on makeshift stoves on the rockbound flanks of the streams and the children dipping their feet in the shallows. In places where the gradients reduce, the streams become wider and more placid, allowing people the luxury of swimming. Apparently, in some places the depth of water is much greater than it appears. My cabbie sternly warns a group of young swimmers to stay clear of one area.
Truth be told, there is some evidence of one W. Broken bottles are littered in some places and, here and there, I see groups of tourists downing a peg or two. Booze parties, I am told, do take place in these wooded hills, but Sathyavedu doesn't deserve to be struck off the tourist map merely because of this. In any case, these hills hold out different things for different people.
Many of those who haul themselves up do so to pay obeisance to the deity in the Siddeshwara Kona temple. On the days preceding and following the annual Mahasivarathri festival, these hills swarm with devotees.
Balakrishnan takes me to what is easily the highlight of the visit. A four-kilometre walk through the shrub forest to a waterfall. Don't attempt this without a good pair of shoes or, for that matter, without a strong pair of legs.
Returning to Chennai, I couldn't help thinking that the Sathyavedu range is a good place for those who like heading out for day-long trips.
It certainly makes a change from the standard route for those who like to go on short motoring trips - the East Coast Road. However, don't even think of taking your vehicle all the way up, unless you happen to own a tough SUV.
Back in the office, there were the inevitable questions about the two Ws. "Saw plenty of this," I replied, "wood and water".
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