Hello from Substack! Of Mountain Connections | Coonoor&Co Journal
Dear Friend,
I hope this message finds you well. I’m excited to announce that we’re moving our newsletter to Substack, a platform that allows us to expand our reach and grow our Coonoor&Co community. As we make this transition, I’m resending our latest newsletter to welcome you to our new home on Substack.
We proudly present The Mountain Connection, an immersive exploration of mountains around the world and their profound relationship with humanity. This edition takes you on a journey from the majestic Himalayas, through the verdant Northeast, into the mystical heart of the Western Ghats, and to the far reaches of the Antarctic. Through exquisitely crafted stories, we map the intricate bonds connecting these diverse terrains while navigating the realms of silence and healing. These narratives offer insights into the passage of time, ecological transformations, and a reimagined understanding of animacy and intelligence that transcends anthropocentric views.
This newsletter features a diverse range of narratives – from the exquisite, thought-provoking stories by authors Namita Gokhale, Kaveri Ponnapa, Meher Mirza, and Olaf Willoughby, to a heartfelt message from the legendary Ruskin Bond celebrating the mountains that have been his lifelong inspiration. Artists AJ Mallari and Toshi Singh have livened these pages with stunning illustrations. Our biannual journal stories will be published on a rolling basis, and each one will find its way to your inbox in the coming months. In addition to these stories, you will find a carefully curated selection of prose, poetry, and book recommendations that our team has enjoyed during this time.
As our journal continues its gentle evolution as a nature and Slow Life-inspired, substance-rich publication featuring contributions from exceptional writers and visual artists, we deeply appreciate your continued support. Your support enables us to bring these stories to life and share them with you.
Please do support us by sharing this newsletter with friends and family who might be interested in our work.
Very warmly,
Ramya
Issue 7: An Introduction
This issue, The Mountain Connection, is an immersive exploration of the mountains around the world and their profound relationship with humanity. As both mirror and metaphor, mountains stand as timeless muses, leaving an indelible mark on the lives and legends of those dwelling in their ancient, towering presence.
Excerpts from the journal:
Never Never Land
by Namita Gokhale
Set against the backdrop of the Himalayas, Namita Gokhale brings to us a tale of four women and The Dacha, a cottage in the mountainscapes of Kumaon. In this moving excerpt*, Namita interweaves the relationship dynamics of these women within the beauty of the mountains. Through myths that are both cautionary tales and prophecies, it casts a spotlight on the ever-widening rift between humans and nature. Narratives of landslides, overflowing rivers, and forest fires, remind us that the animacy of mountains ought to be cherished and revered.
I thought I was done with writing novels and had no more stories to tell. I was working on other things, but it felt strange to be away from fictionalising – it felt as though I was living in an empty room with no windows. And then this book began to crawl out from somewhere – I would write a bit on my phone everyday, the shadow of a plot hovering somewhere inside me, but not much more.
-Namita Gokhale
[*Excerpt from the chapter Digital Tales from Never Never Land, authored by Namita Gokhale, published by Speaking Tiger Books, 2024]
Journeys Across Hills
by Kaveri Ponnapa
Journeys Across Hills is a reflective journey where Kaveri Ponnapa weaves the rich tapestry of Kodagu’s ethereal landscapes with her personal explorations across the Nilgiris. Through her vivid storytelling, she delves into the sacredness of land, ancestral wisdom, and the soulful connection to her heritage, highlighting the beauty of Kodagu and its people.
As she embarks on a quest to document the Kodava community’s fading echoes, her narrative not only pays homage to the intricate relationship between the land and its keepers but also poignantly addresses the challenges of preserving this unique culture against the relentless tide of modernity.
We drove out of Kodagu, my father and I, leaving behind us a magnificent ring of ethereal hills drenched in the history of our ancestors. Kotebetta—part of Kodagu’s sacred landscape—its rugged, fortress-like appearance after which it is named was a soft, delicate blue in the early morning distance.
-Kaveri Ponnapa
The Blue Remembered Hills
by Meher Mirza
In The Blue Remembered Hills, Meher Mirza revisits our beloved Coonoor’s colonial charm with gentle humour and descriptive effervescence. She narrates the transformation of 19th-century Coonoor from a land of indigenous forests and native Indian dwellings into a colonial “hill-station”. The Europeans fashioned Coonoor into a sanatorium, indulging in its mild climate and developing a rich culinary and social scene. Meher captures the dichotomy of Coonoor’s identity—between its colonial past and natural beauty—through vivid descriptions of its evolving landscape, community, and the fleeting yet impactful moments of joy and cultural exchange.
Coonoor is 6000 feet above sea level, with a population of 5,000 of whom 2,000 are Europeans…There are about twenty miles of excellent and beautiful pleasure drives, the hedges of which are bright with roses, fuchsias, dahlias, heliotropes, lantanas, sunflowers, passion flowers and many others. It is a lovely spot, every turn of the roads opening some fresh view of noble mountains, steep precipices, sweeps of forest, and the rich fertile plains beyond.
-Meher Mirza
Mountains and Meaning: Journeys of the Body and Soul
by Olaf Willoughby
In Mountains and Meaning: Journeys of the Body and Soul, Olaf Willoughby explores the mountainscape as a portal of transcendence. Against the glacial backdrop of the Antarctic, Olaf delves into mountain climbing as both a physical and metaphysical peregrination. Mountaineering, understood in this expansive sense, is not merely about pushing one’s physical limits through a change in altitude. It is about shifting our perspective to transcend the trappings of our solipsistic mental prisons. Through immersion in the mountain vistas, we arrive at the limits of the body and the limitlessness of the soul.
The mountainous landscape achieves the impossible. The sky blends into the land in a seamless saturation of grey-white snow and ice. I watch from the boat as my colleagues pick their way slowly along a slippery ridge, climbing to a lookout point: Nine tiny yellow-jacketed figures, dwarfed by the silence.
-Olaf Willoughby
Reflections from the Writer on the Hill
by Ruskin Bond
I’ve lived with mountains and on mountains for the better part of my life…my school days in Shimla, and the last fifty years or so up here in Mussoorie. I know the hill stations of India pretty well, too. And once you’ve lived with mountains or lived in the mountains, no matter how often you go away, you will always want to come back.
There is something about mountains and about the air; maybe it is the height or just their magnificence and solitude that gets to your heart and traps you in a way. Whenever I’ve gone away, it’s only been for short periods, because I’m always longing to come back.
-Ruskin Bond
Poetry
Curated by Ashna Ashesh
The Poet Dreams of the Mountain
by Mary OliverSometimes I grow weary of the days, with all their fits and starts.
I want to climb some old gray mountain, slowly, taking
the rest of my lifetime to do it, resting often, sleeping
under the pines or, above them, on the unclothed rocks.
I want to see how many stars are still in the sky
that we have smothered for years now, a century at least.
I want to look back at everything, forgiving it all,
and peaceful, knowing the last thing there is to know.
All that urgency! Not what the earth is about!
How silent the trees, their poetry being of themselves only.
I want to take slow steps, and think appropriate thoughts.
In ten thousand years, maybe, a piece of the mountain will fall.Morning Prayers
by Joy HarjoI have missed the guardian spirit
of Sangre de Cristos,
those mountains
against which I destroyed myself
every morning I was sick
with loving and fighting
in those small years.
In that season I looked up
to a blue conception of faith
a notion of the sacred in
the elegant border of cedar trees
becoming mountain and sky.
This is how we were born into the world:
Sky fell in love with earth, wore turquoise,
cantered in on a black horse.
Earth dressed herself fragrantly,
with regard for aesthetics of holy romance.
Their love decorated the mountains with sunrise,
weaved valleys delicate with the edging of sunset.
This morning I look toward the east
and I am lonely for those mountains
Though I’ve said good-bye to the girl
with her urgent prayers for redemption.
I used to believe in a vision
that would save the people
carry us all to the top of the mountain
during the flood
of human destruction.
I know nothing anymore
as I place my feet into the next world
except this:
the nothingness
is vast and stunning,
brims with details
of steaming, dark coffee
ashes of campfires
the bells on yaks or sheep
sirens careening through a deluge
of humans
or the dead carried through fire,
through the mist of baking sweet
bread and breathing.
This is how we will leave this world:
on horses of sunrise and sunset
from the shadow of the mountains
who witnessed every battle
every small struggle.
Books we love
The Living Mountain
by Nan Shepherd
Nan Shepherd, a Scottish Modernist writer and poet, is celebrated for her seminal work, The Living Mountain. Through her immersive narrative, Shepherd transports readers directly into the rugged terrain of Scotland, encouraging a sensory engagement with the landscape. She famously asserted that “Each of the senses is a way in to what the mountain has to give,” blending poetic sensibility with philosophical insight. Her writings dissolve the boundaries between the observer and the natural world, promoting a deep, introspective communion with the mountains.
In her view, mountains are not challenges to be conquered but living entities to be experienced and understood, making her work a vital read for anyone seeking a deeper connection with nature. […]
Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination
by Robert Macfarlane
This beautifully written book explores how mountains have been perceived through time, blending cultural history, meditation, and personal narrative. Robert Macfarlane delves into why the fear and awe of mountains have been so compelling to adventurers, artists, poets, and explorers throughout the centuries. He examines how our fascination with high places has altered our relationship with the natural world, drawing on the literature, art, and science that mountains have inspired. This book echoes the irresistible pull of the peaks that Théophile Gautier spoke about, making it a perfect fit for anyone moved by the mystique and grandeur of mountains. […]
News from the Nilgiris
Why gaurs are tumbling down the Nilgiris
by Vasanth Bosco
In a recent instalment of the Sarmaya Arts Foundation’s Living Archive series, Nilgiris-based conservation ecologist Vasanth Bosco delves into the unique shola-grassland mosaic of the Nilgiris. Through historical images from the Sarmaya collection, Bosco sheds light on the alarming decline of green cover, now reduced to just 10% of its original expanse. The archival photographs by British photographer Edmund David Lyon from the 19th century serve as a powerful testament to the ecological changes and the rapid disappearance of this cherished landscape.
This thought-provoking piece offers valuable insights into the challenges facing our natural heritage and is essential reading for anyone interested in conservation and environmental stewardship.
[Originally published on February 23, 2024, in The Hindu as part of the Living Archive series by Sarmaya Arts Foundation.]
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Sending monsoon magic your way,
Team Coonoor&Co
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