A toast to freedom in the blue mountains

Around the Nilgiris, they seem to have stood up to the BJP's plan to make this a nation of dumbos

I spent this Thursday sitting on a hillside in the Nilgiri Mountains, worshipping a couple of coconuts. The Nilgiris stand like big blue teeth in the welcoming smile of the Deccan — or, as Tarun Vijay calls it, where the black people we live alongside, live. I was at a bhoomi pujan to bless new landowners and their land, throwing my godless good wishes into the mix. After two sweaty hours we buried two tiny silver snakes in the ground, and repaired to a humongous lunch — or, as Ram Vilas Paswan might put it, beyond the regulated restaurant portion.