Light and Shade

l'ébat des anges ; - Non... le courant d'or en marche,
meut ses bras, noirs, et lourds et frais surtout,
d'herbe. Elle, sombre, ayant le ciel bleu pour ciel-de-lit,
appelle pour rideaux l'ombre de la colline et de l'arche.

Arthur Rimbaud-MÉMOIRE

Need I say more?

The Trees Above

Silver Oaks and Eucalyptuses cast their shadow on the somnolent tea beds and play. Do they know each others' existence?

The Evening Light

The soft light of the evening falls on the landscape. The mountain at the far end has some shadow. Soon, it would be dark and all the people would be indoors. The hill roads have no street lamps. Activity could start only after the night is over.

The Elevated Platform

From the road, the mountain here looks like an elevated platform. The tea plants give the surroundings an uniform green, which captivates the mind. At the base, there are some trees with high tension electricity cables at the top with the blue of the sky for its background.

Munnar- The Cup of a Mountain

The mountain has many shapes and each bend looks different. In the image above the mounds have formed in to a cup or a rosette. Form the height the depth looks inviting. The tree plants would continue to retain the shape of the mounds for ever. The foreground of the image has a close up of tea leaves.

The Tea Cup

The mounds dance down to the valley in the photo above. One could see the tea leaves clearly at the base of the image. The tea plant protects the mountains by retaining the earth with its roots. The tea roots also retain water. This is one crop which yields leaves suitable for tea every week! So that the world would always have its supply of tea.

In the tea Museum at Munnar, tea processing is shown in different stages. The history of Munnar and the tea plantation is shown in a documentary film. The smell of freshly ground tea is strong and intoxicating when the leaves are crushed and cut in to tiny granules.

Con la paz de las montañas te amare Munnar

"With the peace of the mountains I love you" is the meaning of the Spanish love lyrics. What could be more peaceful than the Munnar mountains with the greenest of tea gardens? The play of sunlight on the undulating foliage looks like a painting with the tall eucalyptus trees standing in line. We had the best of our times going around in Munnar. Each bend in the mountain is different and each mountain relates to the sky in a different manner.

In the rarefied air of the high altitude, Munnar is majestic.