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Day 3: The Return – Aug 17th 2008

We got up very late due to the tiresome two long days before. There was no specific plan than to return to Bangalore. The Jaganmohan palace and St.Philomena’s Church were optional. The breakfast cum lunch was at Hotel Maharajas, another Kerala hotel, opposite to the KSRTC bus stand and nearby to the Hotel Kairali where we had the same yesterday. But Maharajas was far far better than the other one, in all respects. After the brunch, as we had no other timepass, we decided to check out the remaining places too.

Jaganmohan palace was an art gallery and very nearby to the Mysore palace. There was an entrance fee of Rs.20 and no cameras were allowed. So we kept them in the car, and went in. There were 3 floor of exhibits. The top floor contained the wall paintings (murals) and the old-dated instruments. They were supposedly used by the Mysore rulers. There were also the paintings of the various artists lived during that period. The intermediate and ground floor mainly depicted various paintings by various artists, say, Tibetans, Mughals, Britishers, and Raja Ravi Verma’s. The paintings not to be missed of, are the ones by Raja Ravi Verma, and I am sure, any common person, who is not much interested in these art, will immediately fall in love with the beautiful mesmerizing paintings by him. There were also the portraits of the Mysore Dynasty and the Kings, the historical artifacts used by them, the thrones, the enormous imagery of the durbars, the handicraft and artwork, the imported pieces and many more..The place is a treasure for people who study history for sure.

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Day 2: Aug 16th 2008

The plan included Bylakuppe Tibetan Camp, Cauvery Nisargadhama and the Dubbare Elephant Camp. We had breakfast at Hotel Kairali, the Kerala Hotel suggested by Masky and started off at around 8.30 am. We had a helpline to guide us, and then our instincts, along with the innumerous directions given by the road-goers to lead our way. The first milestone itself was more than 80 km on the Mysore – Madikeri stretch. The Mysore – Hunsure road on SH88 was perfect long drive. There was not even a bee on the way and hence, even I got the chance to drive the smooth highway with dividers, and that too at 60-70km/hr. Not bad for me!! There were small towns in between like Periapatna en route Bylakuppe.

The Tibetan camp settlement in Bylakuppe was towards left from the main highway. There was a wide arch welcoming you, but also thronging the anti-Olympic slogans. We went in search of the Golden Temple at the 4th Camp. It was quite a long way deep inside. The green fields, fluttering prayer flags, Tibet scripts and the Tibetan people on the way made us feel that we were not in Mysore, but in Tibet. We actually were. There were not much Indian people around except for one or two. The Golden Temple will not ever be missed as there were clear indications of the way. It was much much bigger tourist spot than we expected, compared to the lonely way leading to the temple. The temple belonged to Nyingmapa Monastery. There were innumerous monks, dressed in their special apparel in shades of dark red and yellow. I was reminded of the Yodha film and the”kunu kune” song was humming on my lips. The place and the temples were very serene. The Tibetan paintings reminded of the wall paintings of the ancient Indian artifacts of both the North and the South. You realize then that, there is a uniqueness in every culture of the world. There was a shopping centre nearby, and hoping to know more about the people and culture, I searched for some antiques or books related to them. We moved on after buying a prayer wheel, rather a hand-held wheel and a prayer bell.

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Mysore being less than 150 km from Bangalore, was the destination of our last weekend getaway.  Combined with the Independence Day holiday, we had 3 days and hence had a 3-day well-calculated plan too. The key highlights include the Opel Corsa long drive, the meet with the TE titans (Masky, Chaos and Sunny) and a surprise, the Tibetan camp visit, and the travel back to the historical ages…

Day 1 – Aug 15th 2008

There was a plan that Masky and Chaos would give us company enroute Mysore, but RK and I were late. (The previous night, it had rained in Bangalore, and the traffic made RK reach home, very very late, at around 11.30pm!) I don’t know how those people sleep late and wake up early as if they are insomniac, but anyhow, they were ahead of us and reached Mysore by 8.15am.

We started as slow as possible, within 6.30 to 6.45 am in his grand Opel Corsa, with 2 backpacks and water bottles in the back seat. The traffic was not that heavy, and once we were on the main highway SH17, the Mysore Road, the drive was really smooth. There were cars initially, but as we went further, there were even none for some time, I guess owing to the early morning timings. We were speeding low as we had to fill up the gas and air too on the way, and also had to look out for the lefts n rights we need to take long ahead. We had Srirangapatnam Temple in mind, and enroute, the green welcome boards notified us of the Silk city (Ram Nagaram), Sugar City (Mandya), and then the Historic City (Srirangapatnam).

The directions to the temple were pretty clear, but we knew of , or rather had the agenda of only the temple and the Dariya Daulat in that town. There were many other places to visit in the Srirangapatnam, but not that we got reminded of at that point. The Ranganatha temple is 1-2km travel from the right turn on the main highway. It reminded me of the Dasavatharam first few scenes and Kamal Hassan’s famous chant of “Om Namo Narayana”. Close to the temple, were the Tipu Sultan’s place of death, and Colonel Bailey’s Dungeon. I hate the reminiscence of wars and battles, and not to mention the dungeon and the pain of the people involved. I didn’t even wanted to visit the Juma Masjid nearby on the way back, as the whole history had started to haunt me.

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