It was getting quite late by the time we set out to the Brindavan Gardens. The road that we took to reach the Gardens was filled with vehicles and it was quite obvious that a very sizeable portion of the traffic was headed where we were going.
Since the traffic was getting heavier, our driver decided that he had to do all he could to ensure that his passengers saw the dancing fountains at the appointed time. The entire stretch of road from Mysore city to Brindavan Gardens was just an assorted collection of potholes. But this didn’t deter the noble intentions of our driver to take us to the show on time. He started to overtake vehicles from the left. Sometimes he even started driving on the right hand side of the road just to pass some 3 or 4 cars in front of us. I was having a ring-side view of the action since I was seated in the front, next to the driver.
He didn’t care for potholes; of course, if he started to, then we would have reached the Gardens only the next morning. By the time we neared the Gardens, it was clear that the parking lot was full. Cars had come out to the road and there were even big buses waiting on the main road. Our driver decided to drop us near the entrance and then go somewhere for parking. Luckily, he got a slot in the lot near the entrance and we proceeded towards the Gardens. By now, it was past twilight and officially night.
Once inside the Gardens, I was able to relate to most of the fountains. It was an area full of Patel Points and I joined in the fun. At some point during our walk in the Gardens, my mother made the comment “Idhu atthanaiyyum enga oorukku vara vaendiya thanni…paavigala….” (“All this water has to flow to my town you sinners”). Considering the general Karnataka-TN political water wars it was quite a bold statement to be made at Brindavan Gardens. Thankfully, the place is filled only with tourists and I am assuming that barely 10% of it would have been Kannadigas and even those would be the ones who don’t know Tamizh.
So without any incidents, we were able to proceed with our walk around the Gardens. Since it was getting late, we couldn’t stay back to enjoy the Garden some more. After we came out, we had to wait for nearly 15-20 minutes for Raji. She had also come there with her friends, but was on the other side of the Gardens. It took her and Mahendran that long on the phone to sort out their co-ordinates (with some help from me too). We then took off towards Mysore to have dinner and then officially wrap up the day.
After another exciting drive, we dropped Uthra and co. at their residence. We went back to the same restaurant where we had lunch. But now, we had to wait for a while before we got a table. My parents and even Mahendran to a certain extent had a quick nap in this gap. Raji joined us late since her friend took a wrong turn on the return and it took them a while to retrace their path in the darkness.
So after an arduous day (at least for my parents), we finally returned to our hotel. We planned to start a little late in the morning next day, with the main (and probably sole) agenda being the visit to Somnathpur. This was because I wanted to leave Mysore in the afternoon, so that we could avoid driving in the mountain route to Madikeri at night. The additional factor was also that my room was booked only for one day and I thought I could get a free hour or two before I check-out of the hotel. Unfortunately the hotel guys had other ideas.
Showing posts with label tired. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tired. Show all posts
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Mysore-Madikeri Vacation May 2008: Part 4
We decided to visit the temple, with the standard “having come thus far, let us at least make an attempt”. As we neared the temple, I realized that my memory of visiting this place 12 years ago (as part of my Study Tour in my 3rd year while at college) was blank. I didn’t remember the route to the temple, didn’t remember the temple and didn’t remember the general neighborhood.
Since there was a very heavy rush, we decided to take the special darshan route; a route which was charged at Rs.100 per adult head. Surprisingly, the counter issuing the special darshan tickets was itself very crowded and we got ours after a good 10-15 minute wait in line. Thanks to the special ticket and of course the relatively small interiors of the temple, we were able to have a quick darshan and come out very quickly.
We came out of the temple and took the mandatory pictures with the gopuram as the background. We headed back to the car and then it was off to visit the Mysore Palace. We didn’t stop over at the Nandi temple and had a quick 5 second glance from the road.
Once again, when we entered the Mysore palace, I didn’t remember too much of this place either. I only had very vague memories of the outer of the building but that could very well be due to the pictures one comes across in various media. But during our visit inside, I was able to relate to couple of places. Yet there was one memory where I was in this room filled with various swords and other weapons used by the Maharaja, but I was not able to see that room this time around. Perhaps it was closed for maintenance! The palace, for those who have not visited it, is simply magnificent.
By the time we came out of the palace, my parents were quite exhausted since it was well beyond 1.30 PM. We then returned to our cab and headed out to Hotel Dasaprakash Paradise for lunch, yet another place very strongly recommended by Raji. As has been frequently observed in our group, what she likes most of us don’t and what we like she doesn’t. The restaurant we went to was no different.
A bunch of us ordered their special thali meals. Mahendran and I were trying to figure out one of the side-dishes that was served for the Roti, when my father discovered that it was actually bisi bhella baath!!!
After we wound up our lunch and gathered around the lobby, I chanced to meet upon the brother-in-law of a close friend of mine. This person is actually staying in Adyar and I rarely if ever, meet him. It was ironical in a way that both of us met each other at a city where neither of us resides!
After the lunch was done with, we started from the Hotel leaving behind Raji, since she was planning to join some friends of hers who had come there. She would then accompany them to Brindavan Gardens which was supposed to be where we were headed for the evening.
But my parents were naturally a bit tired with the car journey and the late lunch. I decided to let them take rest in our hotel room, whilst Mahendran and I would go to the Mysore campus of my company. We were going to drop off Uthra and Co. and pick them up on our way back.
I had a brief stop-over at Uthra’s place, to take a look at her house. Dunno if it is considered auspicious or not, but before I set foot in their house I spotted this “pooraan” and her MIL killed it; I helped in removing the carcass.
We then headed to our office in Mysore and what I saw there is going to remain etched even in my RAM like memory for a long time to come.
Since there was a very heavy rush, we decided to take the special darshan route; a route which was charged at Rs.100 per adult head. Surprisingly, the counter issuing the special darshan tickets was itself very crowded and we got ours after a good 10-15 minute wait in line. Thanks to the special ticket and of course the relatively small interiors of the temple, we were able to have a quick darshan and come out very quickly.
We came out of the temple and took the mandatory pictures with the gopuram as the background. We headed back to the car and then it was off to visit the Mysore Palace. We didn’t stop over at the Nandi temple and had a quick 5 second glance from the road.
Once again, when we entered the Mysore palace, I didn’t remember too much of this place either. I only had very vague memories of the outer of the building but that could very well be due to the pictures one comes across in various media. But during our visit inside, I was able to relate to couple of places. Yet there was one memory where I was in this room filled with various swords and other weapons used by the Maharaja, but I was not able to see that room this time around. Perhaps it was closed for maintenance! The palace, for those who have not visited it, is simply magnificent.
By the time we came out of the palace, my parents were quite exhausted since it was well beyond 1.30 PM. We then returned to our cab and headed out to Hotel Dasaprakash Paradise for lunch, yet another place very strongly recommended by Raji. As has been frequently observed in our group, what she likes most of us don’t and what we like she doesn’t. The restaurant we went to was no different.
A bunch of us ordered their special thali meals. Mahendran and I were trying to figure out one of the side-dishes that was served for the Roti, when my father discovered that it was actually bisi bhella baath!!!
After we wound up our lunch and gathered around the lobby, I chanced to meet upon the brother-in-law of a close friend of mine. This person is actually staying in Adyar and I rarely if ever, meet him. It was ironical in a way that both of us met each other at a city where neither of us resides!
After the lunch was done with, we started from the Hotel leaving behind Raji, since she was planning to join some friends of hers who had come there. She would then accompany them to Brindavan Gardens which was supposed to be where we were headed for the evening.
But my parents were naturally a bit tired with the car journey and the late lunch. I decided to let them take rest in our hotel room, whilst Mahendran and I would go to the Mysore campus of my company. We were going to drop off Uthra and Co. and pick them up on our way back.
I had a brief stop-over at Uthra’s place, to take a look at her house. Dunno if it is considered auspicious or not, but before I set foot in their house I spotted this “pooraan” and her MIL killed it; I helped in removing the carcass.
We then headed to our office in Mysore and what I saw there is going to remain etched even in my RAM like memory for a long time to come.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Tirupati travelogue 9-Feb-08 to 10-Feb-08: Part 4
After the darshan, we completed the rest of the formalities including visits to other sannidhis and also the hundial contribution. We regrouped at the main entrance and were waiting for our guide to get us our laddoos. By then, it was already well past 8 PM and finally, the lack of intake of food was beginning to show into my psyche. The fact that I’d been standing for quite a long time didn’t help things.
We finally got our pack of laddoos and started moving out of the temple premises by 8.45 or so. I had to make a quick halt at one of the road side shops to procure ‘rakshai’ threads, since some of my team members had specifically asked me to get that. Since it was getting late, I thought that we could perhaps go down to Tirupati by one of the ubiquitous jeeps available there. It would have cost us like 300-400 bucks and would have saved us quite some time.
This suggestion too was shot down with the same vigor exhibited on other occasions earlier in the day. I thought we could at least finish off the dinner at one of the restaurants near the temple itself. We saw a very decent looking one near the Vaikuntam complex. I reasoned that the presence of elderly people who were getting exhausted, accompanied by the fact that none of us had eaten anything after the lunch at noon and topped up by the fact that we had spent some 3 hours waiting inside and outside the temple, would make people complete the dinner there itself.
But somehow, the usual majority was hell bent on going back to the Hotel and eat only there. Thankfully, we at least took a jeep back to the petrol bunk where we had kept our footwear and other valuables like mobile phones. We bid farewell to our guide and walked down to the bus stand. There was no bus immediately available and we then took one bus that was headed to Chennai.
Most of us got seats right at the end and the bus started some 10 minutes later. The ride down was anything but comfortable and holding on to a bag of 10 laddoos, with an attempt not to let them get crushed, didn’t help me at all.
We finally reached the hotel at 9.45 PM and luckily, the restaurant was still open. We all had a very hearty dinner and I might have gone slightly overboard too. But that was the minimum I could do to keep myself from crying!
I also arranged for the cab to take us from the hotel to the College for our interview on Sunday. I am sure there would have been enough buses to go there as well, but since it was official, no one objected to booking a cab for 1600 bucks.
We decided to meet up in the restaurant for breakfast at 7.15 AM the next morning and then we all went back to our respective rooms.
[To be continued in Part 5]
We finally got our pack of laddoos and started moving out of the temple premises by 8.45 or so. I had to make a quick halt at one of the road side shops to procure ‘rakshai’ threads, since some of my team members had specifically asked me to get that. Since it was getting late, I thought that we could perhaps go down to Tirupati by one of the ubiquitous jeeps available there. It would have cost us like 300-400 bucks and would have saved us quite some time.
This suggestion too was shot down with the same vigor exhibited on other occasions earlier in the day. I thought we could at least finish off the dinner at one of the restaurants near the temple itself. We saw a very decent looking one near the Vaikuntam complex. I reasoned that the presence of elderly people who were getting exhausted, accompanied by the fact that none of us had eaten anything after the lunch at noon and topped up by the fact that we had spent some 3 hours waiting inside and outside the temple, would make people complete the dinner there itself.
But somehow, the usual majority was hell bent on going back to the Hotel and eat only there. Thankfully, we at least took a jeep back to the petrol bunk where we had kept our footwear and other valuables like mobile phones. We bid farewell to our guide and walked down to the bus stand. There was no bus immediately available and we then took one bus that was headed to Chennai.
Most of us got seats right at the end and the bus started some 10 minutes later. The ride down was anything but comfortable and holding on to a bag of 10 laddoos, with an attempt not to let them get crushed, didn’t help me at all.
We finally reached the hotel at 9.45 PM and luckily, the restaurant was still open. We all had a very hearty dinner and I might have gone slightly overboard too. But that was the minimum I could do to keep myself from crying!
I also arranged for the cab to take us from the hotel to the College for our interview on Sunday. I am sure there would have been enough buses to go there as well, but since it was official, no one objected to booking a cab for 1600 bucks.
We decided to meet up in the restaurant for breakfast at 7.15 AM the next morning and then we all went back to our respective rooms.
[To be continued in Part 5]
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