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bethlakshmiI'm lazy and haven't uploaded the latest pictures. But - I'm feeling quiet, wanting to connect with home, and wanting to remember good stuff. So I'm history blogging and catching up on things I didn't write about while I was hopping about the country.
Mysore - Part I - Everything in Two Days
Looking back at everything we did, I'm sort of astounded.
We started the day early - 6:00 AM got up, by 7:30 we were out the door. The trip was Amma, Arno and I. Preeti had to work. Amma is one good planner. We did a Kannada lesson in the car, and then hit Ramanagara hotel for breakfast. They have a delicious buffet, for 70 rupees per person. It was all that is always great about a buffet - lots of choices and small servings so you can try everything. My favorite thing was the grape juice. It was thick, grapey and just the right amount of sweet. But everything was really good. I liked most of the chutneys, and the various starches were well made.
They have a folklore museum and they keep their own cow for fresh dairy. Unfortunately the cow was away, and the folklore museum was not open yet, so we hopped back in the car and headed off.
The area is full of farms - coconut and banana mostly. On the way through, we saw a cow auction. There must have been a quarter mile of cows staked with tethers. They went a good bit into the woods, too. A LOT of cows. Cows are serious business here.
Our first stop was Dariya Daulat Bagh. This is the summer palace of Tippu Sultan. The grounds are lovely. Inside is a museum that is even more lovely - but doesn't allow pictures. The palace is post SCA period, but the paintings are fantastic - quite a few good pictures of women - queens and palace attendants. But mostly it's about war. The era of Tippu Sultan is the era of fighting with the British. Not my favorite era, given that I love India... but I am of British ancestry.
Next we were off to Nimishamba. At first, I thought we were taking a long time, but in hindsight, this was a trip highlight. Preeti worships here every month, and so they know everyone. The temple is thriving - the marketplace is busy and there was a line of people around the block (so to speak) to come in and see the diety. Fortunately, Amma has connections. We visited with a family in the temple residence, and got a personal escort in the door ahead of the line. Probably saving an hour of waiting. We toured the smaller dieties, and got a ticket for the ritual happening at the main shrine in half an hour. All through, Amma introduced me as "Aparna's student in Bharata Natyam", this combined with my obvious respect for the traditions here got me a certain amount of "cred", so to speak. I could see priestly expressions change from "who's that white one?" to "Cool! She's no tourist, she's taking this seriously". Being someone's student here is a big deal, especially when their mom introduces you that way.
I didn't realize at the time, but Nimishamba is a very healthy temple community. There's plenty of priests and plenty of worshipers, which also means plenty of merchants. (Sorry no temple pictures, but most temples don't let you take pictures). This shows in everything. The gods are well maintained, the priests are friendly, the grounds are generally well cared for and things are well organized.
After getting tickets for the ritual, we got prasada - temple food - and went out side for a bit. For Arno a half hour is a really long time, and he was getting grumpy at too much temple time. Admittedly, for a 6 year old the last half hour or so of temple stuff is going to get pretty boring. So we headed out to the river.
One thing I love about a lot of the temples - they are near beautiful places in rivers. This time of year, the water is not high, but there's enough of it. Near the temples, the water has generally been wading depth, which means you can enjoy the water, even if you don't swim. Near temples, there are often very nice steps that lead right into the water. This is perfect for keeping watch on 6 year olds and doing a little wading yourself. I'm not clear on how much bathing in rivers has to do with Hindu rituals, but there is a certain sacredness to bathing in such beautiful water and I saw quite a few people go in fully clothed. In the warm air, light cotton quickly dries. Still and all, it was mostly guys doing it, shirtless. No bathing suits in sight.
We finished our river trip with some lime and pepper soda - soda water, freshly squeezed lime juice, and a good shake of black pepper. No sugar. It's savory and refreshing, but not something normal for an American palate. They make it right in front of you, give you a glass (real glass), you drink, then pay, and give the glass back. We also shopped for vegetables and got a lot of sapota. Sapota is a fruit that looks like a potato on the outside, but has a sweet, soft pulp inside, and big black seeds. You can mush it, break the skin and break off pieces to eat, if you know what you are doing. If not, you end up rather sticky. It's hard to describe... maybe pear meets melon? The sapota seller was eager to sell a LOT of sapota, so we ended up with a big bag, which Amma cleverly gave as gifts to everyone we encountered - including the temple folks.
We piled back in the car, and saw Gumbaz. Gumbaz is the tomb of Tippu Sultan. It's also many other tombs as well (shown here). You can't actually take a picture of Tippu's tomb. He's in the central shrine with his mother and father. Much of his family, including wives, are here, too. Notice that the graves here look different that US graves. The ones with a pointy top are male graves, the flat, square top are women. Muslims bury their dead, Hindus cremate.
We then grabbed a quick lunch, as it was getting late for lunch time. This is where I found out that road food is not always so magical. The food was not nearly as good as at home. The chutney was too spicey, so I ended up eating it with sugar, which cuts the spice. Beyond the too spicy chiliness, there was not much interest to the food.
We got back in the car and headed to Rangaputna, the fort town that was the seat of Tippu Sultan. It includes the place Tippu's body was found. The story is, Tippu used a classic Indian king trick, he had several guys that looked him, dressed like him. In battle, it would be hard for the enemy to find and kill him. But one of his guards was treacherous and told the British that he'd hold an umbrella over the real Tippu's head. He was found this way, and killed in battle.
Also saw Colonel Bailey's Dungeon. Colonel Bailey died here. The prisoners where chained to walls, in a low, dark place, crowded together. Being low to the ground, it would be cooler, but the ventalation is pretty lousy. I'm not a big fan of the British occupation of India, but I couldn't help but think what it would be like to be a regular soldier trapped down there, far from home, not knowing what was happening or if you'd ever get out. War is awful.
We finished our run through Rangaputna at Ranganatha Temple. It was closed for a rest break and there was already a long line, so we returned the next day.
We then went to Cabily - a shopping area in Mysore. It's a great handicraft market. My mission was jewelry for dance, but they didn't have the kind of quality we were looking for. I was quite disappointed and started to worry that we'd not find the same quality we found in Chennai. We wandered the other merchants. There was some great stuff, but the prices were a little high for my taste. On our way out, I was attracted to some coin sellers. I ended up spending about $20 on a variety of coins. The price started about double that. The guy was selling from cloth blanket, so he didn't really have the feel of an authentic antiquities dealer. But they were plausibly hand stamped, and I decided it was a nice momento, even if I was scammed.
Now I could see some of Mysore proper. It's a lovely city. Full of trees and nice architecture down town. It has the feeling of a plan. The transit is pretty good, and it's less crowded than Bangalore. I think of it as Cambridge to Boston. Bangalore is Boston - all sorts of things are happening in it, lots of people, lots of good stuff and bad stuff, big business is there, lots of traffic. Really, Bangalore is probably even more like NYC... Mysore is more like Cambridge - it prides itself on smartness, it has a strong sense of history, it's got more focus on arts. It's also smaller and it's easier to keep it cleaner with much less traffic. It also seems smug in it's niceness. But I really do like it better. The weather is just slightly warmer, but the air is very clean.
We went onward, with some time to spare, to Chamundi Hill. The hill is really steep and people climb it for exercise. It's got 1000 steps. We drove. On top, there's a temple to the goddess Chamundi (Durga) who killed the demon who had a boon that no man could kill him. There are temple monkeys here, which people feed. The monkeys are pretty fiesty. They've learned that if they hang out and do cute monkey things, they will get fed. But they get a little grabby. This one posed nicely for me, but I had one heck of a time getting a picture of Amma and Arno with a monkey. Between the fact that Arno is not totally cool with the monkey, the other temple visitors want to play with the monkey and the monkey being, well, a monkey - the shot was not an easy one to get. We kept running about trying to line up me, the monkey and Amma and Arno. It was rather like a comedy routine.
My favorite temple on the hill was actually Mahabaleswara - a Shiva temple. It turns out it's pretty old (1128 AD dedication). I liked that it was not so crowded, and I liked the general ambiance. It was just us and the priest at the time.
These are naga stones. People donate them as a way to beg for children if they are having trouble having them. Or in thanks when they have had the children they were having trouble getting. Nagas show up in very early Indian mythology - they are snake people, although the stones look like just snakes. I like the ancient fertilitiy feeling of this.
Also there was a great tree god at the base of the tree.
We stopped for a rest and enjoyed the view of Mysore from the hill. Amma told me about her history with this place. She has memories from all times in her life here. Youth, marriage, child raising, and coming here with grown children and grand children. It was awesome. I am somewhat envious. I have people in my life that have been with me my whole life. But not places. My connection to the place I was raised is not strong. And my home has been my home for a long time, but not lifelong. What a good thing.
We finished up the hill visit with coffee. Amma and I are coffee co-addicts who enable each other. She asks me if I want some... I always say yes... we drink more coffee. We spend a fair amount of time together wide awake and a little twitchy. :)
We also got mix your own snacks. The snack is a salty, spicy dry munchy thing. A guy with a cart has big bags of different types of stuff - dried peas, rice crispy things, nuts, spicy starchy things, etc. He lets you sample a bit of a few and you get a certain amount of it, mixed together (or not). We got one spicy and one plain. I liked the spicy better. It was not super spicy - about a regular Chex Mix level of spicy and salty. Good at the end of a hot day.
We then went quickly down the hill in our car to see the lighting of the palace. Mysore palace is ornate by day, but positively spectacular by night. Nothing beats the moment when the sun is going down and all the lights come on. They do it Sundays and holidays.
We made the trek into the grounds, where I walked around some. It was a fairy land. Amma met a lady giving out flyers and collecting money for a women's conference. Amma is very involved in women's issues in Mysore, and she and the woman had a long talk and knew some of the same people.
We finished the day by grabbing some food for home, opening the house and cooking at home.
OK... it's been 2 or 3 hours of writing! And that was just one day! But as you can see, it was BUSY!
I finished the day looking... Blessed. At temples you get powder to put on your forehead. You want to hit your third eye, around the area of the bindi. Those who know what they are doing, manage this as a nice, neat dot of powder. I look like the god has been poking me in the forehead.
Rest assured, I did this to myself. :) And I didn't quite see how ... umm... well blessed... I was until the day was done.
Mysore - Part I - Everything in Two Days
Looking back at everything we did, I'm sort of astounded.
We started the day early - 6:00 AM got up, by 7:30 we were out the door. The trip was Amma, Arno and I. Preeti had to work. Amma is one good planner. We did a Kannada lesson in the car, and then hit Ramanagara hotel for breakfast. They have a delicious buffet, for 70 rupees per person. It was all that is always great about a buffet - lots of choices and small servings so you can try everything. My favorite thing was the grape juice. It was thick, grapey and just the right amount of sweet. But everything was really good. I liked most of the chutneys, and the various starches were well made.
They have a folklore museum and they keep their own cow for fresh dairy. Unfortunately the cow was away, and the folklore museum was not open yet, so we hopped back in the car and headed off.
The area is full of farms - coconut and banana mostly. On the way through, we saw a cow auction. There must have been a quarter mile of cows staked with tethers. They went a good bit into the woods, too. A LOT of cows. Cows are serious business here.
Next we were off to Nimishamba. At first, I thought we were taking a long time, but in hindsight, this was a trip highlight. Preeti worships here every month, and so they know everyone. The temple is thriving - the marketplace is busy and there was a line of people around the block (so to speak) to come in and see the diety. Fortunately, Amma has connections. We visited with a family in the temple residence, and got a personal escort in the door ahead of the line. Probably saving an hour of waiting. We toured the smaller dieties, and got a ticket for the ritual happening at the main shrine in half an hour. All through, Amma introduced me as "Aparna's student in Bharata Natyam", this combined with my obvious respect for the traditions here got me a certain amount of "cred", so to speak. I could see priestly expressions change from "who's that white one?" to "Cool! She's no tourist, she's taking this seriously". Being someone's student here is a big deal, especially when their mom introduces you that way.
I didn't realize at the time, but Nimishamba is a very healthy temple community. There's plenty of priests and plenty of worshipers, which also means plenty of merchants. (Sorry no temple pictures, but most temples don't let you take pictures). This shows in everything. The gods are well maintained, the priests are friendly, the grounds are generally well cared for and things are well organized.
After getting tickets for the ritual, we got prasada - temple food - and went out side for a bit. For Arno a half hour is a really long time, and he was getting grumpy at too much temple time. Admittedly, for a 6 year old the last half hour or so of temple stuff is going to get pretty boring. So we headed out to the river.
One thing I love about a lot of the temples - they are near beautiful places in rivers. This time of year, the water is not high, but there's enough of it. Near the temples, the water has generally been wading depth, which means you can enjoy the water, even if you don't swim. Near temples, there are often very nice steps that lead right into the water. This is perfect for keeping watch on 6 year olds and doing a little wading yourself. I'm not clear on how much bathing in rivers has to do with Hindu rituals, but there is a certain sacredness to bathing in such beautiful water and I saw quite a few people go in fully clothed. In the warm air, light cotton quickly dries. Still and all, it was mostly guys doing it, shirtless. No bathing suits in sight.
We finished our river trip with some lime and pepper soda - soda water, freshly squeezed lime juice, and a good shake of black pepper. No sugar. It's savory and refreshing, but not something normal for an American palate. They make it right in front of you, give you a glass (real glass), you drink, then pay, and give the glass back. We also shopped for vegetables and got a lot of sapota. Sapota is a fruit that looks like a potato on the outside, but has a sweet, soft pulp inside, and big black seeds. You can mush it, break the skin and break off pieces to eat, if you know what you are doing. If not, you end up rather sticky. It's hard to describe... maybe pear meets melon? The sapota seller was eager to sell a LOT of sapota, so we ended up with a big bag, which Amma cleverly gave as gifts to everyone we encountered - including the temple folks.
We piled back in the car, and saw Gumbaz. Gumbaz is the tomb of Tippu Sultan. It's also many other tombs as well (shown here). You can't actually take a picture of Tippu's tomb. He's in the central shrine with his mother and father. Much of his family, including wives, are here, too. Notice that the graves here look different that US graves. The ones with a pointy top are male graves, the flat, square top are women. Muslims bury their dead, Hindus cremate.
We then grabbed a quick lunch, as it was getting late for lunch time. This is where I found out that road food is not always so magical. The food was not nearly as good as at home. The chutney was too spicey, so I ended up eating it with sugar, which cuts the spice. Beyond the too spicy chiliness, there was not much interest to the food.
We got back in the car and headed to Rangaputna, the fort town that was the seat of Tippu Sultan. It includes the place Tippu's body was found. The story is, Tippu used a classic Indian king trick, he had several guys that looked him, dressed like him. In battle, it would be hard for the enemy to find and kill him. But one of his guards was treacherous and told the British that he'd hold an umbrella over the real Tippu's head. He was found this way, and killed in battle.
Also saw Colonel Bailey's Dungeon. Colonel Bailey died here. The prisoners where chained to walls, in a low, dark place, crowded together. Being low to the ground, it would be cooler, but the ventalation is pretty lousy. I'm not a big fan of the British occupation of India, but I couldn't help but think what it would be like to be a regular soldier trapped down there, far from home, not knowing what was happening or if you'd ever get out. War is awful.
We finished our run through Rangaputna at Ranganatha Temple. It was closed for a rest break and there was already a long line, so we returned the next day.
We then went to Cabily - a shopping area in Mysore. It's a great handicraft market. My mission was jewelry for dance, but they didn't have the kind of quality we were looking for. I was quite disappointed and started to worry that we'd not find the same quality we found in Chennai. We wandered the other merchants. There was some great stuff, but the prices were a little high for my taste. On our way out, I was attracted to some coin sellers. I ended up spending about $20 on a variety of coins. The price started about double that. The guy was selling from cloth blanket, so he didn't really have the feel of an authentic antiquities dealer. But they were plausibly hand stamped, and I decided it was a nice momento, even if I was scammed.
Now I could see some of Mysore proper. It's a lovely city. Full of trees and nice architecture down town. It has the feeling of a plan. The transit is pretty good, and it's less crowded than Bangalore. I think of it as Cambridge to Boston. Bangalore is Boston - all sorts of things are happening in it, lots of people, lots of good stuff and bad stuff, big business is there, lots of traffic. Really, Bangalore is probably even more like NYC... Mysore is more like Cambridge - it prides itself on smartness, it has a strong sense of history, it's got more focus on arts. It's also smaller and it's easier to keep it cleaner with much less traffic. It also seems smug in it's niceness. But I really do like it better. The weather is just slightly warmer, but the air is very clean.
We went onward, with some time to spare, to Chamundi Hill. The hill is really steep and people climb it for exercise. It's got 1000 steps. We drove. On top, there's a temple to the goddess Chamundi (Durga) who killed the demon who had a boon that no man could kill him. There are temple monkeys here, which people feed. The monkeys are pretty fiesty. They've learned that if they hang out and do cute monkey things, they will get fed. But they get a little grabby. This one posed nicely for me, but I had one heck of a time getting a picture of Amma and Arno with a monkey. Between the fact that Arno is not totally cool with the monkey, the other temple visitors want to play with the monkey and the monkey being, well, a monkey - the shot was not an easy one to get. We kept running about trying to line up me, the monkey and Amma and Arno. It was rather like a comedy routine.
My favorite temple on the hill was actually Mahabaleswara - a Shiva temple. It turns out it's pretty old (1128 AD dedication). I liked that it was not so crowded, and I liked the general ambiance. It was just us and the priest at the time.
These are naga stones. People donate them as a way to beg for children if they are having trouble having them. Or in thanks when they have had the children they were having trouble getting. Nagas show up in very early Indian mythology - they are snake people, although the stones look like just snakes. I like the ancient fertilitiy feeling of this.
Also there was a great tree god at the base of the tree.
We stopped for a rest and enjoyed the view of Mysore from the hill. Amma told me about her history with this place. She has memories from all times in her life here. Youth, marriage, child raising, and coming here with grown children and grand children. It was awesome. I am somewhat envious. I have people in my life that have been with me my whole life. But not places. My connection to the place I was raised is not strong. And my home has been my home for a long time, but not lifelong. What a good thing.
We finished up the hill visit with coffee. Amma and I are coffee co-addicts who enable each other. She asks me if I want some... I always say yes... we drink more coffee. We spend a fair amount of time together wide awake and a little twitchy. :)
We also got mix your own snacks. The snack is a salty, spicy dry munchy thing. A guy with a cart has big bags of different types of stuff - dried peas, rice crispy things, nuts, spicy starchy things, etc. He lets you sample a bit of a few and you get a certain amount of it, mixed together (or not). We got one spicy and one plain. I liked the spicy better. It was not super spicy - about a regular Chex Mix level of spicy and salty. Good at the end of a hot day.
We then went quickly down the hill in our car to see the lighting of the palace. Mysore palace is ornate by day, but positively spectacular by night. Nothing beats the moment when the sun is going down and all the lights come on. They do it Sundays and holidays.
We made the trek into the grounds, where I walked around some. It was a fairy land. Amma met a lady giving out flyers and collecting money for a women's conference. Amma is very involved in women's issues in Mysore, and she and the woman had a long talk and knew some of the same people.
We finished the day by grabbing some food for home, opening the house and cooking at home.
OK... it's been 2 or 3 hours of writing! And that was just one day! But as you can see, it was BUSY!
I finished the day looking... Blessed. At temples you get powder to put on your forehead. You want to hit your third eye, around the area of the bindi. Those who know what they are doing, manage this as a nice, neat dot of powder. I look like the god has been poking me in the forehead.
Rest assured, I did this to myself. :) And I didn't quite see how ... umm... well blessed... I was until the day was done.
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Date: 2010-02-02 02:54 am (UTC)You inspire me to get back to India!!
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Date: 2010-02-02 03:27 am (UTC)