badge

Sunday, August 9, 2015

A Day In Mysuru !!

















Yesterday, I returned from a fruitful trip from Mysuru and today's TOI headlines screamed "Mysuru Is India's Cleanest City". What a coincidence I thought!! Just yesterday I was musing about this city where every second person is a tourist or atleast in transit ( Mysore is well connected to hill stations like Ooty, Coorg, Kodiakanal and Wayanad )and yet how nicely they have managed the roads and the traffic. Surely there are narrow lanes like one would expect in a historical town like this but it is hard to spot mounds of garbage piling up like one does in Bellandur, Murugeshpalya and some parts of Mahadevpura ( all are suburbs of Bangalore...How the hell did it make to the top of cleanest capitals in India ??? ). Some excerpts from my visit -

Time : 2 pm (Near State Bank of Mysore) - The navigation system had been playing truant for a while and after being confused by the 1st exit and 2nd exits on some imaginary circle, we decided to ask a local for the directions to our hotel. He dropped everything and proceeded to explain the route to us in detail. As he said, the route on which we were driving was shorter and simpler but a part of it was a 'Kaccha rasta'. The other route was longer and in good condition but somewhat more confusing given the numerous gallis that labyrinth Mysuru. We took the short route and found the hotel without any trouble. 
















Time : 8:30 pm (Cafe Aramane) - "Hum Hindi samajtey hain. Baat kar saktey hain", proclaimed the waiter when his initial queries in Kannada yielded nothing more than blank expressions. We were sitting in Cafe Aramane, a pure veg restaurant located in a heritage building. He then proceeded to outline the dinner menu in Hindi. The guy was very much courteous and promptly took down the orders. The food was quick (it was served in the short while that it took me to appreciate the tasteful interiors) and tasty. And the final bill brought a smile on my face.

Time : 9:30 pm (Silks) - The guy was putting the sarees back on the shelves but promptly put everything down even as we entered the shop. Had it been Bengaluru, we would have been promptly shooed away like a stray bovine/canine that had ventured into prohibited territory. He suggested different styles as befitting me and my MIL. And he showed us quite a number of sarees including ones that are preferred by locals, Bengalis (he mistook me to be one) and ones that are worn during marriages. We bought two and while my husband was making the payment, he continued to enlighten me about the history of the Mysore Silk sarees.

PS - I am mighty dejected with the TOI and Raghavendra Rathore who did not include this classic beauty in the list of "5 Must-Have Sarees".

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Had it been Bengaluru, we would have been promptly shooed away like a stray bovine/canine that had ventured into prohibited territory."

    Hahhaha. Completely agree with your statement.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Rishie....I guess u too have been an unfortunate victim like me :)

      Delete