The road hasn't changed

One of the places I have the best childhood memories of is Wellington. A small cantonment area where the Defence Services Staff College is located, it is nestled in the Nilgiri Hills, about 15 minutes from Coonoor and 45 minutes away from Ooty in Tamilnadu. My dad was posted there when i was around a year old, so my existence of just a year doesn't exactly bring back a photo album of memories, but he got posted there once again when I was 6. We stayed for four years and it was the most enchanting place I've ever stayed in. I think I was just the right age to enjoy it. It was a completely safe area as most of these defence areas are and I remember dashing down the sloping roads with my friends in the dark because home was never far away and everyone knew where everyone was! I have so many memories of Wellington...the curvy road, which I used to take up to school every morning from my house at Memorial View; the small convenience store aptly named 'Needs'; the Staff College Bakery whose owner was a splitting image of Bud Spencer; the shallow valley behind the house which served as a hunting ground for fairies, as a slide for my dog (Dr. Spock) who tumbled down every other day, a hiding place for all of us during an adrenaline packed game of 'cops and robbers' and well yes, just a valley at times; the beautiful golf course which we used to walk across every day and the muddy streams where Dr Spock showed off his dog paddling skills! It was a place where I don't remember ever being bored. My father insisted on both my sister and I learning to ride horses, since he had been horseback riding since he was 5. I started with 'pony riding', where every evening at 4 o'clock there was a knock on our front door by a man with a benign, gentle eyed pony. He would lift me up onto it and take me for a 20 minute stroll where I would hold on to the pony's neck, mane, the reins or anything I could get my hands on since I was terrified that the benign pony would turn out to be rather well, not so benign! However, we never advanced beyond the lazy stroll except once or twice where the pony would break into a brisk trot and I would shriek and I think the evil man would think it rather funny! My sister being a lot older was taken to learn riding at the stables where my dad and most of the officers and their wives in Wellington went. I went along once to watch her and I think my dad tricked me into it because I was watching a magnificent gleaming black horse called Harsha being ridden by one of the instructors, or sa'abs as we called them, and I was completely spell bound by the sheer size of the horse, when before I knew it my dad had lifted me up and I was sitting with the sa'ab on Harsha! The world seemed veryyyy small from up there. After my initial melodramatic screaming I realized, "hey, this isn't so bad. I look good up here and the horse isn't dashing off anywhere so maybe this isn't as terrifying as I thought it would be". From then on I woke up every morning and went to learn riding and was actually becoming quite decent at it before a rather wild horse called Sherry ran away with me and I fell off clumsily and was totally traumatized for a while. I did go back, but stopped after a while. However, I never ceased to be fascinated by watching my dad go horseback riding and I still remember the hunts they all used to go on. I think it was once a month where they used to have a huge breakfast for all the riders and their families. I loved going to meet the over excited hound dogs and feeding all the horses lumps of sugar. All the riders used to be in their scarlet coats and breeches with their riding caps and these are images of Wellington that never leave me.
We shifted house three times while we were there and each place was great. Our second house was an old bungalow called "Aashyana" and was surrounded by an over grown forest where I was told panthers roamed, though I never actually saw any! I used to walk down the winding lanes with Dr Spock to go to the library at Staff College, or borrow a video from the rather strangely named "Woolleys"! Our neighbors had a podgy labrador named, well actually his name was Podgy, who used to squeeze through the fence into our garden and hob nob with Spock in the backyard. It was usually cold in Wellington and I remember watching John Travolta and Olivia Newton John in 'Grease' (borrowed from Wooley's of course!)while snuggling under a blanket in front of a glowing heater.
Our church was in Coonoor and we used to drive past the beautiful Wellington Gymkhana Club, which overlooked a magnificent slope of lush tea bushes. The club was the venue for a lot of the parties and get togethers and I remember sitting out on the long verandah eating greasy french fries and drinking tomato soup! WE passed by a friend's tea estate on the way to church as well where a lot of the church retreats and get togethers were held. There was a haunted house as well since there always is one in every hill station with the usual woman in chains in a white outfit scowling down at passers by!
We used to go up to Ooty quite often as well. We had friends who had a house overlooking the ooty lake where you could see visitors paddling furiously in boats and cotton candy men outlining the lake in pink. I never much cared for Ooty, since it was always raining and cold with tons of tourists and it didn't have the charm of Wellington. I used to look forward to the drive from Wellington to Ooty though, because it was a beautiful winding drive through the Nilgiri Hills and we would pass "Sleeping Beauty", these hills shaped like a sleeping woman shrouded in mist, which never failed to intrigue me!
My mother used to work at a British missionary school, called Hebron, in Ooty. We would go watch the school performances sometimes and since it was a residential school I was completely fascinated by the lives the kids led...they seemed to always have a blast. It was a beautifulllll school. Located next door to the Botanical Gardens I still remember the long wooded "driveway" up to the school building. There were flowers and charming little nooks and corners everywhere. One holiday my mom had to work so they asked her to come stay at one of the staff cottages for 3 weeks and since my dad was not there, she took my sister, Dr Spock and me with her. It was the most quaint cottage ever and we slept in bunk beds, ate sticky muffins and drank steaming hot chocolate in the morning with the most gorgeous sunshine filtering in through the windows, walked down to the swimming pool ( it was too cold to swim, but Spock looked like he would've loved to try!), played with the English teachers' kids, Susan and Stephen, read books from the library, jumped up and down on the huge trampoline in the garden and banged on the piano in the common area in the evenings. It was fantastic!
There is so much I loved about Wellington and I could ramble on and on about it. I visited again when i was in college and what made me fall in love with the place all over again was that it hadn't changed a bit. The school uniform at the convent we studied at was still the same muddy brown and beige ensemble, the nuns were still chasing the kids all over the place, and our old music teacher still remembered, or at least pretended to remember, my sister and me! 'Needs' was still catering to everyone's needs, the bakery still made the best salt and sweet cookies, the muddy springs criss crossing the golf course would look as inviting to Spock if he were there to see them, and everything seemed to have just been preserved in this time bubble! It will probably remain the most enchanting place I've ever stayed in...and I won't be surprised if someday my kids will run to the door at 4 o clock in the evening and open it to a shaggy little pony with a star on its forehead who'll take them for a stroll down winding roads that haven't changed!