Journey to Mysore: Part One

Drove up to Mysore (130 kms from Bangalore) a couple of days ago. I was very excited about the trip because Mysore is well-known for its beautiful gardens, palaces, shady avenues, sugarcane juice, silk and sandalwood carvings/oil. Enroute, we obeyed the rumblings of our stomach and stopped at "Kamat Lokaruchi" a restaurant nestled among lovely palm trees, a river and other greenery, for a meal from the northern part of Karnataka (the state which hosts the cities of Mysore and Bangalore). Although the jowar roti and eggplant curry are considered specialties, my favorite was the dill herb curry cooked with spices and coconut milk. Lunch was served on green plaintain leaves and I was left licking my fingers long after my meal was consumed.A sweet end to the meal was a delicious dried- fruit ladoo which was whipped out from a cupboard (a rather unusual way to store these sweetmeats, I thought) and later I noticed that the cupboard even had a lock which made me feel like I was truly savoring a very precious delight.




Forgot to mention that the curd and buttermilk served with our lunch was obtained from cows kept on the premises, also, we were served by very pleasant local people dressed in Gandhi caps and dhotis.


The drive to Mysore from Bangalore is a very pleasant one and along the way, if you're so inclined you can stop at various interesting places like, "Ramanagar" well known for its silk cocoon market, the silk from which is woven to make the very famous, Mysore silk saris(picture below). Then there's "Channapatna" famous for its wooden toys; "Mandya" for its sugar mills (infact there are numerous sugarcane fields along the drive) and finally "Srirangapattana" set within and around the ruins of Tipu Sultan's fort.




As we arrived into Mysore, we had a flat tyre , but the gods ensured that it happened just outside a bodywork place, or as they call it in India, a tyre shop. Whilst they were fitting the spare tyre onto our SUV I visited a government school whose gate we had stopped infront of. I requested permission to take a picture of the teacher giving a lesson - the class was filthy, the walls unpainted. The amenities were basic with just a couple of benches (no desks), the kids (grade 6) received all their instruction orally. Primary education is free for children from low-income families and despite the condition of the school, I was happy to see these kids receiving an education.


Just Outside the school was this local couple weaving window blinds (you can see some of the students of the school I visited peeping over their school yard (notice one of the students is barefooted and the other seems to possess just an ordinary pair of rubber flip-flops. None of the students had shoes).

The lady in the picture is wearing a small garland of flowers in her hair and this is a typical hair adornment for most women in the state of Karnataka. The flowers are usually the sweet-smelling jasmine, but I am not sure what the orange flowers are called. She also has the red kum-kum at the parting of her hair which indicates she is a married woman.

Hope you've enjoyed this little trip to Mysore from Bangalore and hope you will stay tuned for pictures from Mysore in part 2.

(Sari pic. courtesy yourmanindia)