Finding wild elephants and an old friend

What a day! The following letter was written by Mark about our adventures today, and the discovery of a Wesleyan connection here in Mysore. At the end of this post, you'll find photos of our drive through the Indian jungle and the wild animals we saw there.

First, the letter from Mark:

Well we are out about two months on our family journey and are having an incredible time - many very special encounters - which you can read more about on our family blog. But today was a Wesleyan day so I thought you might be interested in hearing the tale.
We were up in the Hill Station of Ooty, high up in the Western Ghats of Kerala - cooling down after spending a week in Cochin. We headed out to Masingudi where we had planned to spend the evening in a tree house. We left a little early as the roads in a number of directions had flooded out the day before and we had to navigate 36 hairpin turns down the western side of the Ghats. We arrived in Masingudi to find out that the tree house was not available. I think the elephants that were supposed to hoist us up the tree had gone on strike - that's the best I can figure - so we decided to head off to Mysore for the evening and ended up in the Green Hotel. It's a former palace, now a hotel, which gives all of its profits to local charities in Mysore and hires people served by those charities. It's a great setting. Jennifer and I went out to the spreading lawns for a late night candle lit dinner and the kids were hooked up with books, internet and Pizza Hut. I grabbed all of the local papers as I have been enjoying the many English newspapers that are put out in every city in India. As I usually do I went to the editorial page of the local paper, Star of Mysore, which happens to be an evening paper - Derry D'Oench would be very happy to know that evening papers are thriving here - and I started reading the lead editorial to Jen. It was about a women from Siberia who had come to Mysore to study Bharathanatya and Karnatak classical vocals. The article seemed interesting and then all of a sudden the following paragraph appeared and I felt shivers run up and down my spine as the words flowed out. The editor compared this woman's pursuit to the great John Higgins. Here, where John became a legend, his name still rolls off the tongue as a fresh memory.

The passage reads as the following:

We are reminded of another such lover of art, the legendary John Higgins. Higgins came from the United Sates to learn Karnatak Music. He went on to earn the title 'Higgins Bhagavathar,' one of the greats of Karnatak music. Though it was evident he would reach greater heights it could never be as he was knocked down by a speeding lorry. People like Higgins and Muza are the ones who keep the fabric of humanity alive, by a whole hearted effort in understanding other cultures. I ran off to call the editor of the Star of Mysore to see how he knew John - and while at the front desk, trying to ring him up, I saw a college student who was on an abroad study program and she was talking to her friends about her great Mayor in her home city of Denver, John Hickenlooper. I of course interjected and tried to set the record straight but to no avail.

Now of course we would not have run into this set of events had we not been on a tear to get to Bangalore by Saturday morning to pick up our good friend, Matthias Vinikas 76(should have been 68) who is flying in to spend a week with us during our 3 month trek through India
Even here half way around the world, the world turns around the Red and Black.

Peace and Health

Mark

p.s. below is the entire editorial as it appears in the Star of Mysore - as printed Thursday November 16,2006
EDITORIAL


CULTURAL AMBASSADORS
Our city is currently hosting an artiste Muza, from Russia. She is a housewife who has come here to pursue Bharathanatya and Karnatak classical vocals. Muza, who discovered Indian art and classical music on the internet was so enamoured that she came to pursue her love from as far out as Siberia in Russia, a city with the dubious reputation as a frozen tundra, notorious for its prison camps and geographical location at the far end of the northern hemisphere.

Muza is a perfect example of how people with sheer love for arts will cross all barriers of language, culture and distance to learn them and in turn bring us closer to the dream of the world evolving into one family - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. This attitude to learn and appreciate and love another culture is all the more important to mankind at this juncture in world history. Whatever may be the principles propounded in Political Science, they have not enabled mankind to live amicably, both within countries and among nations. Fostering relations through pursuit of cultures of different countries in our contemporary strife-torn world is imperative.
We are reminded of another such lover of art, the legendary John Higgins. Higgins came from the United Sates to learn Karnatak Music. He went on to earn the title 'Higgins Bhagavathar,' one of the greats of Karnatak music. Though it was evident he would reach greater heights it could never be as he was knocked down by a speeding lorry. People like Higgins and Muza are the ones who keep the fabric of humanity alive, by a whole hearted effort in understanding other cultures.
Art and culture have always promoted two-way ex-changes. India has gained as much in giving to the West as receiving from its rich repertoire of philosophers, painters and musicians. Two outstanding examples of such legends of our times have been the famed violin maestro Yehudi Menuhin and the celebrated painter Svetoslav Roerich. The former struck a perfect equation with our top notch violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman. The latter took as his life partner Devika Rani, considered as the First Lady of Indian Cinema.
Cultural exchanges are the best tools to bring about change and peace. No wonder folk art has been effective since time immemorial. So let's welcome cultural ambassadors to our city, after all, we are known for our artistic heritage. The bonds between countries based on political cohesiveness may not be stable. Informal bonds such as connecting Siberia with Mysore augur well for both arts and humanity. Star of Mysoreextends a warm welcome to Muza.

Now for some photos of our drive from Ooty to Masingudi. The road with 36 hairpin turns, which had this helpful sign at each turn:


Three down, thirty-six to go.

Looking down on the clouds, between Ooty and Masingudi

Deer staring at us

We've seen many elephants in India, but they were all professionals! Here in the Madumalai preserve it was such a delight to spot wild elephants, casually munching their way through the forest, moving in and out of our sight about 100 yards away. There were at least 4 elephants that we spotted in this cluster, and this photo shows the second youngest reaching for a snack.

A lion tail monkey and her baby suddenly decide we aren't worth the trouble -- she had jumped down from a tree to investigate our vehicle.

Somebody can look this one up for us. It is apparently made by snakes. This one was about 5 feet tall and the only reason we saw the elephants was because we stopped to photograph this.