THE WRITERS IN SEARCH OF MUSE
Updated: Jul 14, 2019
What can bring an investment banker, a teacher, cabin crew member, a novelist and a social activist together to India from different parts of the world?
What can bring an investment banker, a teacher, cabin crew member, a novelist and a social activist together to India from different parts of the world? “To find time for their writing and travel to a new beautiful place”. It is their idea of fun to be on a writing retreat. The passion to write and travel has drawn nine strangers from UK, France, Greece and Australia to spend 10 days together inside a serene plantation resort nestled in the crest of Palani Hills on the eastern fringe of the Western Ghats. “Thandikudi at an altitude of 1200 metre and bordering the foot of Kodi Hills is the kind of space where stories are created,” says Hazel Manuel, author of four novels and the brain behind the ‘sunsets and spices writers’ retreat’. From the UK, Hazel is not new to India having stayed on a short-term project in Madurai in 2012 and ever since has been visiting the country regularly. It was during her maiden visit that she was introduced to the lush green coffee estate, the ‘Tranquil Nest’ for writing an article.