Let’s Talk Munnar!🌴

It was around 8.10 at the offices of GPTW as I was closing on my excel sheet when my colleague from across the desk exclaimed – ‘So we are going to Munnar!’. I feigned surprise but knew it all along – perks of being in the team making this possible! But why to dampen the mood so I played along..
 
Striding the borders of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Munnar (means 3 rivers as it sits on their confluence) is a quaint town in the Western Ghats. Though Munnar is only 10° N of the equator which means if we compare Madurai (on the same latitude about 4hrs east of Munnar) sees 36°C on the 26th May, but it will be around 19°C when we land at Munnar (with some possibility of drizzle)☂️

You can easily locate Munnar in here!

Now, I am going to go some years back – How did Munnar came into existence?
Munnar is older than the Himalayas and once shared borders with Madagascar!🏝️ How you ask? Here’s how –

140mn years ago	Gondwanaland was a super-continent with South America, Africa, India, Madagascar, Australia and Antarctica together – so yeah we did shared borders with them back then and we were near the South pole. India began to split and started its journey northwards.
100mya	Madagascar split from the western coast of India, that combined with previous split meant the Western coast was a steep cliff with intense seismic activities
65mya	Indian plate passing over Reunion Hotspot(now an Island by same name) sees huge eruptions leading to formation of Deccan plateau and aids Western ghats formation
38mya	Crosses equator
10mya	Hits Eurasian plate and Himalayas are formed which are still rising 1cm/yr

Journey of India

So when our feet land on Munnar’s soils, you now know where you stand and how it came into being – Savour that!⛰️
 
Munnar takes the best of both worlds – Kerala and Tamil Nadu. You have Puttu which is steaming rice(which dominates here) and coconut as local culinary. Art forms such as Mohiniyattam and martial arts such as Kalaripayattu. Eravikulam National Park boasts the highest Nilgiri Tahr population which are found only in India. Not to forget, Neelakurinji flowers which blossom once in 12 years, last in 2018.🥀

Nilgiri Tahr

The battle between British and Tipu Sultan in 1700s saw a theatre at Munnar gap while in 1800s JD Munro a British resident took Munnar on lease from the royal family on a mere 3000 rupees/yearly and post some experimentation with coffee, cardamom finalized TEA as the perfect crop for the well drained soil and plenty of rains and sunlight, which now is synonymous with Munnar – I am sure when you googled for Munnar you landed on the step plantations of lush green tea plantations..☕
 
So now we know where we are headed to, on the 26th! Pack your bags, mark ‘Out of Office’ on the Status Tracker and get ready to witness God’s Own Country – മൂന്നാര്‍!🌴