Royal Mysore Walks

Royal Mysore Walks is Vinay's new venture. He quit his IT job in mid 2008, and decided to be his own boss. He took up English classes at the IMS learning centre for a batch of students planning to take up the GMAT. But this didn't hold his interest for too long, and he relocated to Mysore to start the Royal Mysore Walks. I had helped to promote it to a few of my acquaintances, and had also sent him a few clients. But ironically, I'd never been on any of his walks myself, and today that was going to get fixed.

A vacationing couple had driven from Bangalore for a weekend getaway, and had seen an article on the Royal Mysore Walks in Mint, a popular business newspaper. Vinay was entertaining his clients, and I was just trudging along. We went along the Palace Wall a bit, checked out a busy marketplace, walked along narrow forgotten lanes, bought Mysore Pak at the shop where it was first made, visited a small holy shrine and finally wound up at a historical heritage site. All along the route, Vinay kept us keenly interested with his trivia and small anecdotes about the places around us. It really felt as if we were taking a stroll through a slice of history!

Got back home and waited till Vinay's Dad had performed Ayudha Pooja on the vehicles, and then bade goodbye to them.

Before leaving Mysore, I went back to the old places that I used to frequent when I stayed in Mysore for a month during my "Industrial Training" period at the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) sometime in early 2003. For the return journey, I decided to avoid the Mysore-Bangalore highway, and instead take the longer, and not-so-well-made road through Bannur, Malevalli & Kanakapura.

<- The alternate smaller roads

The countryside ->

It started pouring almost as soon as I reached Bannur, and I stopped at a small tea shop and started chatting with the chaiwalla. He asked me where I worked, and I told him I worked in Bangalore for a company that made mobile phones. His next question was how much did they pay me. That made me a little uncomfortable, so I pretended not to hear him. But he was persistent, and asked me again. So I lied to him, and gave him a smaller figure. I had estimated correctly, and he was impressed but not overwhelmed. The next question he asked me was whether I was married yet. When I answered in the negative, he was surprised and said that I ought to be married when I'm already earning so much. I told him that I wasn't prepared for marriage just as yet, and that I wanted to go on many more motorcycling trips before settling down. That's when he started advising me on why one should get married, and how one should choose his wife carefully. He also gave me a lot of advice about how one should not be too greedy for money, and how one should identify fair-weather friends. I was a good listener, and he was happy to find someone to dispense advice to. Not only did he give me 2 cups of tea when I was there, but also refused to take any money for the teas. Finally when the rain had stopped, I took a picture with him, said goodbye and got on the bike again. If you're ever passing through the small village of Bannur near Mysore, do ask for Syed Mudassir Kadir's tea shop and have a cup of tea there!!

<- With Syed, the chai-walla

It was wonderful feeling riding through the small roads with hardly any traffic, looking at the bright green fields on both sides and breathing the fresh clean air that was non-existent in Bangalore. Eventually I got onto a tolled freeway going towards Bannerghatta road. I was riding on a freeway for the first time in India, and the feeling was very similar to being on one of the Interstate highways in the United States.

100 kms to home ->

Reached home around 8 pm with the odometer reading 33478. I had covered 434 kms in the last 2 days.

A hot shower after a long and tiring ride... aah, bliss!

Dassera @ Mysore

I had been to Mysore many times before but never during Dassera. There were crowds everywhere, and there was some activity happening everywhere you looked.

After lunch, Vinay & I went to an exhibition called Cava Mela in a famous arts college. The students had put up some very creative stuff, and organised some fun games. We decided to play an observation and memory game called Mind Mixer, which involved spending exactly 1 minute inside a room and then answering 5 questions asked by the organisers.

Vinay went in first, but could manage to answer just one of the 5 questions. But I was there when he was aked those questions, so at least I knew the kind of questions to expect. When my turn came I entered the dimly lit room and was overwhelmed by the sheer number of items in there. It would take someone about half an hour just to get a good look at everything there, but I had just one minute. So I did the best I could before the lights were switched off.

Once outside, my question-answer session began. I don't remember exactly what was asked but I got the first 3 answers right. The fourth question was, "Where was the snake in the room?". Now I didn't even remember seeing a snake in there, so there was no way I could tell where it was. Looking at me fumbling, Vinay came to my aid and whispered, "Near the statue...". Unfortunately, the whisper was loud enough for the guy asking the questions to hear, so he canceled the question itself and ask me a new one. But the smart bugger asked me an extremely tough question that I couldn't answer. I got the last one right, making it 4 correct answers out of 5 questions.

According to the rules of the game, I was eligible for an additional bonus question as I'd got 4 correct answers. The last question was something like, "What was the shape drawn on poster # 4 on the left wall?". I remembered seeing various shapes drawn on 13 posters on the walls, but I simply couldn't recall what was on poster 4. I blindly guessed that it was a vertical straight line, and guess what, it was the right answer!!!

I had done it. I had proved all my critics and detractors wrong. I had achieved what other men only dreamt of. Where others had failed and given up, I had kept the hopes of mankind alive. I had finally arrived. There was nothing more left to be proven. This was truly the pinnacle of human achievement. And for this, they gave me a sapling. Duh!

I gave the sapling to Vinay's Mom, and I think she was glad :)

Vinay & I then went to the Mysore Palace, and reached there just in time to see the Palace light up. We could feel a wave of sudden excitement come over the crowd when the lights came on. Over 27,000 lightbulbs are used to light up the Mysore Palace. Earlier, they used to be normal lightbulbs, that people would steal to use in their own homes. So it was decided that special lightbulbs manufactured exclusively for the palace would be used (these won't fit into the normal sockets present in Indian homes).

<- The lit Mysore Palace

There was an Indian classical music programme going on, and Vinay knew someone in the light and sound console thanks to which we could gain access to the VIP area!

Indian classical music programme ->

Later in the evening, the 4 of us - Vinay's parents, Vinay & I went up Chamundi Hill to check out the lit up city. We also saw from up close the huge "Welcome to Mysore Dassera" sign made from lightbulbs. Roaming around Mysore city on the motorcycle, Vinay showed me all the famous buildings around Mysore, and how well decked up they were for the festive occasion.

We also walked all around within the Greens hotel, and experienced its grandeur. If you're trying to impress a girl, you should take her to the beautiful little coffee shop within the hotel!

Motorcycling To Mysore

It had been quite a while since I'd been on a roadtrip on the motorcycle (the last long ride was probably to Pondicherry and back), and I was itching to hit the road again. Vinay had told me that Mysore was all decked-up for the annual Dassera (also spelled as Dussehra) celebrations, and had invited me to come there for the weekend. At the same time, Harish had invited a bunch of us over to his home for a mini get-together and to play some Wii games. With the addictive Wii unit beckoning, I was torn between Mysore and Harish's home. A quick phone call to Langdu tilted the balance slightly in favor of Mysore. Langdu and Balli had been to Mysore recently with some of their friends, and he said that the festive atmosphere in Mysore was worth experiencing. When I told Shaarad that I was having a tough time choosing between a roadtrip to Mysore and Harish's home, he looked at me as if I had lost my mind! I knew instantly that it simply had to be Mysore!!

Before you set off on any long ride, it is always a good practice to thoroughly check your vehicle (or have it checked by a reliable person). But since this trip was a spur-of-the-moment thing, I simply couldn't do it! When I checked the engine oil level in the morning, it was rather less, but the color of the oil was good, and that was a good thing. Next I went hunting for a mechanic but there was none to be found in Koramangala. So I rode to Indiranagar and found one guy just opening up his shop. He gave the motorcycle a quick once-over, topped up the engine oil, tightened the brakes and said that it was in decent shape to go to Mysore. So I was finally on my way at around 9.30 am.

<- Time to clock some miles

Due to the delays because of my unpreparedness, I got a lot of traffic while exiting Bangalore. I hadn't had anything to eat and was very hungry by the time I stopped at Kadu Mane, a popular drive-in restaurant between Bangalore and Mysore. I just wanted to have a quick breakfast and leave, but the service was really pathetic. It is here that I got a call from Kini who said that Paddie was getting engaged soon in Mangalore. So that meant another trip with the Breakdown Gang was on the cards :)

Lush green fields along the way ->

I took short breaks along the way to click snaps whenever I thought there was something worth being clicked; and it was during one such break that I met two guys pushing their motorcycle as it had run out of fuel. I offered to give them some from my bike, but we didn't have anything to transfer the petrol. They said that the next fuel pump was just a small distance away, and asked if I could help them pull the bike. I agreed, so one of them sat behind me and the other sat on his dry bike. They held each other's hand, and we started off slowly. This was hardly the safest thing to do on a national highway, with vehicles zooming by us at breakneck speeds. But come on, that's India for you where everything's ok!! Soon enough we reached a fuel pump, they thanked me for my help, and I was on my way again.

<- Just 35 more kms to go

The amazing Bangalore-Mysore highway ->

The rest of the journey was largely uneventful besides giving lifts to a schoolboy, a villager and a policeman but I enjoyed the easy ride on the amazing roads!

Finally got to Vinay's place around 2.30 pm, and after freshening up real quick, we headed out to get a beer and some food.