Skip to main content

Rocks and Water


Hogenakkal in Tamil Nadu bordering Karnataka is a place where rocks and water interplay to produce a unique symphony of nature.  Water keeps gushing from all around into a lake in which coracles (small round rafts) carrying tourists dance blissfully to the rhythms of the nature’s symphony.  

I visited the place the other day with a group of students.  It was an awesome experience.  The rocks that tower all around you like a mammoth fortress look like a phenomenal sculpture.  Water has created its own unique artwork in those carbonatite rocks.  One can spend hours admiring the beauty of those rocks.  You can admire the waterfalls all around if you prefer.  The place is also described as the Niagara Falls of India because of the number of waterfalls that straddle the rocks. 

I love water.  In fact, it’s quite a love affair that I share with water.  Water embraces you totally.  It engulfs you.  It swallows you.  But love affairs are private and I didn’t jump into the waters of Hogenakkal precisely for that reason.  Moreover, I was put off quite much by the waste thrown by tourists into the water in certain places.  With a little effort from the government’s side, the place can be converted into a mesmerising tourist spot. 

Hogenekkal is a rare work of nature’s art.  Rocks and water create a distinctive magic there.

Some pictures from the place: 

Getting ready for the coracle ride
Let's go.
 
Get, Set, Go
 Rocks and Water

Rocks tell stories
Did the carving hurt you, Rock?
Even the coracle man knows when to stop rowing
Carve me too, Waters
Not rocks only
Wow!
Did you notice that little white spot against the greenery?
Have a splash before we wind off

Comments

  1. Wow !!! the place is just amazing,the big rocks and their designs are awesome....the beauty of nature.
    As much as the place is beautiful so your description is.
    Wish i could visit this place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The place is fantastic. So much so I forgot to click snaps of the waterfall. I was so engrossed.

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. From Salem in Tamil Nadu it's about 100 km. You can go from Bangalore too. But you may have to rely on private vehicle as there is no good public transport system there.

      Delete
  3. Amazing place. Loved the post n pics.Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ayodhya: Kingdom of Sorrows

T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...

Lucifer and some reflections

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is not a review of the Malayalam movie, Lucifer . These are some thoughts that came to my mind as I watched the movie today. However, just to give an idea about the movie: it’s a good entertainer with an engaging plot, Bollywood style settings, superman type violence in which the hero decimates the villains with pomp and show, and a spicy dance that is neatly tucked into the terribly orgasmic climax of the plot. The theme is highly relevant and that is what engaged me more. The role of certain mafia gangs in political governance is a theme that deserves to be examined in a good movie. In the movie, the mafia-politician nexus is busted and, like in our great myths, virtue triumphs over vice. Such a triumph is an artistic requirement. Real life, however, follows the principle of entropy: chaos flourishes with vengeance. Lucifer is the real winner in real life. The title of the movie as well as a final dialogue from the eponymous hero sugg...

Empuraan and Ramayana

Maggie and I will be watching the Malayalam movie Empuraan tomorrow. The tickets are booked. The movie has created a lot of controversy in Kerala and the director has decided to impose no less than 17 censors on it himself. I want to watch it before the jingoistic scissors find its way to the movie. It is surprising that the people of Kerala took such exception to this movie when the same people had no problem with the utterly malicious and mendacious movie The Kerala Story (2023). [My post on that movie, which I didn’t watch, is here .] Empuraan is based partly on the Gujarat riots of 2002. The riots were real and the BJP’s role in it (Mr Modi’s, in fact) is well-known. So, Empuraan isn’t giving the audience any falsehood as The Kerala Story did. Moreover, The Kerala Story maligned the people of Kerala while Empuraan is about something that happened in the faraway Gujarat quite long ago. Why are the people of Kerala then upset with Empuraan ? Because it tells the truth, M...

Empuraan – Review

Revenge is an ancient theme in human narratives. Give a moral rationale for the revenge and make the antagonist look monstrously evil, then you have the material for a good work of art. Add to that some spices from contemporary politics and the recipe is quite right for a hit movie. This is what you get in the Malayalam movie, Empuraan , which is running full houses now despite the trenchant opposition to it from the emergent Hindutva forces in the state. First of all, I fail to understand why so much brouhaha was hollered by the Hindutvans [let me coin that word for sheer convenience] who managed to get some 3 minutes censored from the 3-hour movie. The movie doesn’t make any explicit mention of any of the existing Hindutva political parties or other organisations. On the other hand, Allahu Akbar is shouted menacingly by Islamic terrorists, albeit towards the end. True, the movie begins with an implicit reference to what happened in Gujarat in 2002 after the Godhra train burnin...