British Bonds

It8217;s odd how some names stick like limpets despite the passage of time. In and around Munnar one finds several places with intriguing names 8212; all reminiscent of the hill-resort8217;s British origins. There8217;s Director8217;s Leap 8212; a precipitous point overlooking a deep valley. It is said that a British director, depressed by his tea company8217;s recurring losses, tried to jump off this cliff but landed on a grassy patch, unscathed. The name has stuck ever since. Then there8217;s Cigarette Point where, during the Raj, young British tea planters used to meet to gossip, over a cigarette, about the latest scandal rocking staid Munnar. Apparently, it gave them a much-needed break from their overbearing bosses who no doubt would have frowned on this 8220;socializing8221; during working hours.

Many of the local planters8217; bungalows 8212; well preserved heritage buildings dating back to the early 1900s 8212; still bear evocative British names like Ladbroke, Lockhart, Earlston, Ailsa Craig, Benmore, Ben Lui, etc. No name-changing spree is ever likely to hit Munnar. At the core of the Eravikulam National Park near by are Turner8217;s Valley and Hamilton8217;s Plateau 8212; named after two British adventurers who explored these hills in the 1870s to check out the possibility of opening plantations here. Then there8217;s Inaccessible Valley, hemmed in by precipitous cliffs, which too owes its name to British explorers. However, it didn8217;t remain inaccessible for long 8212; thanks to intrusive poachers!

Gravel Banks and Luckham Pool have been the favourite haunts of anglers right from the 1940s when the Brits stocked these sylvan retreats with rainbow trout. Today, thanks to their isolation, they are equally popular with solitude-seekers, as a getaway from the maddening crowd. Perhaps the most imaginative name the Brits left behind in Munnar is Paradise Regained 8212; a division of a tea garden tucked away in a remote corner which, by all accounts, was truly a paradise when it was opened in the early 1900s. Sadly, it8217;s no longer so.

All in all, the Brits certainly did have a flair for names.