A Professor remembers his days in Kodagu

Sir,

Apropos the letter titled ‘A Mysurean’s tryst with Kodagu’ published in Star of Mysore dated July 11, I want to narrate my experience of staying in Kodagu from 1962 to 1966 being a former native of Hunsur.

In 1962, I was directed to a school in South Kodagu by my College Professor whom I happened to meet on Sayyaji Rao Road, Mysuru. Since Kodagu is adjacent to Hunsur, I thought, as a fresher, that I can go and work there and teach English to students.

When I landed at Balele in Kodagu, I was mesmerised by the beauty of nature around the school which was situated amidst a coffee plantation dotted by orange trees. There wasn’t any other building near the school except an asphalted road on which buses used to ply from Gonikoppal to Balele – four or five buses used to ply on this road every day. It was a rare sight for us to see the buses so clean and punctual. The crew of the bus was so co-operative and social, that the passengers used to feel that all of them were the members of the same family.

There was a valley near the school and down below, there was a stretch of land which belonged to the school just like a part of the coffee plantation around the school. It was used to cultivate paddy and rain water was the only source of irrigation. The valley was so beautiful that we used to stand at the rim and enjoy the beauty especially during rainy season and winter amidst thick mist. There was an old house at the rim of the valley and from there we used to enjoy the beauty of the rising sun over a cup of piping-hot Coorg coffee.

Boys playing hockey was a feast to the eyes at the school field which was close to the valley. But that side rim was covered by trees and other vegetation.

This year’s rainfall reminds me of the continuous rain in Kodagu for about five days which locked us up in the school building which was our residence too. We spent our days playing carom, chess, hearing radio. There was no electricity and tap water during that time. I have gone to that place many a time even after leaving that place about 52 years ago to recapitulate the memory.