Mysore - the Dassera Splendour

I am just back after an eventful and most looked forward to trip to Mysore. Being a 4-day long weekend, Hubs and I took off to Mysore to check out the Navarathri festivities in the city. We amusingly took a Rs.19 ticket to Shrirangapattana and decided to move on to Mysore by bus after sight seeing there. At Shrirangapattana, we first visited the Ranganathaswamy temple. After a quick and easy darshanam, we moved on to other places. Among places we saw were Tipu Sultan’s place of death, tipu’s summer palace – which now house a museum, Gumbaz –which has the burial chamber of Tipu. As the burning sun pierced our bodies, we decided to head straight to Sangama which is the point where a branch of the river Cauvery re-unites with the main course, and take a dip. Unfortunately, Friday being Mahalaya Amavasya, the p[lace was full of people engaged in carrying out rituals for their ancestors. Unhappy but yet hopeful, we went on to Nimishamba temple. Though we didn’t enter the temple, we had a great time playing in the river water flowing behind the temple. After lolling in the cool waters for more than an hour, we very unwillingly carried on our journey towards Mysore.

Mysore that evening was peaceful with nothing much to do except visiting a couple of houses. However we were quite enthusiastic and all set to materialize our talakkadu plan for the next day. Come Saturday morning, my poor BIL had a problem with his bike and by the time it was fixed, it was quite late to start a journey so far. So, with no further delay, plans changed and 4 bikes and 8 humans hit the road towards Balmuri. The super awesome thing about this was Balmuri being much closer, Amma and Appa also agreed to join. We just about drenched ourselves in the water there and then moved further down to Edamuri falls. This place had a nice waterfall, safe and large at once for a family to enjoy their day. Having spent a couple of hours bouncing in the water, getting a natural massage by the force of the falling water, with all the slipping, laughter, cheer and joy, we left for home, tired and famished. We stopped by at a restaurant for a very late lunch.

Back home all of us slept like logs at whatever place we could find and only woke up late to take a small bike ride to nearby places to check out the lighting which made the city look bridal. We went a couple of circles away and the first time as it was for me, the feast for my eyes had me yelling with excitement.

Day 3 at Mysore started off with a puja at home followed by a heavy meal of delicious Bissi Bele Bhath in company of 4 of our cousins and an aunt. Early evening, Hubs and I visited the much talked about flower show and I must say it was worth all the talk. The Mahishasura made of roses was spectacular as were the various flowers. I loved most the vegetable garden as I saw for the first time how all my favourite vegetables looked as they clung on to their guardian looking forward to be picked and tossed into a tawa.

Later we went to Chamundi Hills. Now, I had visited this place before but today our intention was to catch the lighting in the city from atop the hill. Half way up the hill it was pouring cats and dogs. Hubs continued riding even as the rain drops pierced at our skin. Once atop, the hot cuppa tea was relieving. Since there wasn’t much crowd at the temple we were able to have a quick darshan and we were on our way downhill. We had to wait about 15 minutes before we witnessed the breathtaking sight of the city lights coming on. The palace looked divine even as the rest of the city, adorned with lights across each and every road was glimmering.

The last event for the day was to be the Yuva Dassera which everyone told me would be an experience of a lifetime. The crowd was huge when we reached the ground. The singer for the day was Shreya Ghoshal. The show was quite a disappointment for everyone else more than me because Shreya sang melodious numbers one after the other giving no opportunity for the crowd to even tap their feet. As she progressed from one song to another, the gathering was slowly disappearing. We too left for home after the first 5 songs.

Today we were to head back for Bangalore, leaving behind the festivities and coming back to mundane reality. We however managed a quick trip to Bombe Mane which is a handicraft emporium. They had arranged an exhibition of traditional dolls for the 9 days of Navarathri. The only thing I could wish when I was there was that I were a baby who could throw a tantrum and wail until somebody bought me everything that I liked (…which was almost everything on display). There were depictions of the various stories of mythology, a model of the highly regarded Dassera procession at Mysore, and stray idols of all hindu deities in their leisure.

As I boarded the train to Bangalore my mind was already counting days before next weekend when I will be witnessing the Dassera procession for real.

Indian Art lost forever

Just back after a weekend trip to Mysore. It was a good change and I am well rested and relaxed now. (not realy!!)

This time, apart from the numerous relatives’ houses, Hubs took me to Jaganmohan Art Gallery. This was initially a palace which has been converted to house all the ancient art of India. The first few exhibits were not very impressive and I had Hubs already cribbing about the Rs.20/head ticket being all wasted.

However, once we went up to the first floor, our opinions changed drastically. The murals, the various pieces of art by Raja Ravi Verma, Haldenkar and others were all a feast for the eyes. My personal favourite is the ‘Glow of Hope’ by Haldenkar. The dark room with a light bulb set up for the painting well-complimented the beautiful piece of a lady holding a lamp. Ah! I was floored!!!

Some others which I liked were the painting of the lighting in the Mysore palace, the painting of an orchestra by Ravi Verma, the various wooden carvings, the musical instruments used by the Raja and the marble miniature of the Mysore palace. The gallery also had exhibits made of glass. Each one looked better than the other. At the paintings section, one of the attendants mentioned to us that on all the paintings by Ravi Verma, from wherever you look at the feet of the people in the painting, the toes always seem to be pointing towards you. Now, isn’t that really really impressive??

We left the gallery wondering if we have really progressed in all these years? Or should we call this regression? How many artists do we find today who can make paintings or carvings like those?

A fortnight back, we were trying to get a simple wooden almirah made for our kitchen. It was a plain almirah with glass doors for the top shelf and wooden doors for the bottom shelf we were looking for. The carpenter claimed he can make it in 1 day. It is 15 days since, and we are yet struggling to get it done. Not to mention the number of mistakes he has already committed in terms of measurement and design.

Compare this against any piece we saw at the gallery and there is no debate. Thanks to our fast forwarded lives today, we have lost the art all together. We neither have artists like we used to, nor connoisseurs to encourage them.

What is more, we cannot even be assured that our heritage will be preserved until our next generations can see. For, despite all the attendants keeping a watch on the visitors, people have yet managed to scribble names, drawings and what-not on the walls of the palace, probably trying to make themselves memorable.