I had just finished class 10, the infamous board exams in Delhi were over and the vacations had started. Summers are hot in Delhi and my father was going to take us to an even hotter place. As a routine my father used to book a trip to Chennai during every alternate summer. My grandfather lived in Chennai or Madras as it was called back then and I was looking forward to quite a few things in this trip as we were not going to spend all of our vacation days in Chennai. My dad had planned a trip to the hill station of Madikeri or Merkara in Coorg while visiting Mysore and its surroundings on the way.
After reaching Chennai and staying there for a week or so, mom dad and I set off to Bangalore in what I reckon was the most annoying and the most interesting train trip ever. Annoying because we got a 2nd class ticket and there were more people without a ticket than those with a ticket. The train was jam packed, and I did not get a window seat and in this train I didn’t even want a window seat as I saw kids near it. Kids next to a window seat meant VOMIT. So I stayed away from the window however to my mom’s displeasure, I would every now and then look out the door. The train “Brindavan Express” travelled through some very beautiful landscape, which included several plantations, rivers and a few mountains. In some corridors the mango plantations were so close to the train that one could pluck the mangoes. Anyway, the train finally made it to Bangalore.
My first visit to Bangalore and I had heard a lot about this place so my expectations were high. We had about 4 hours wait in Bangalore before catching the next train to Mysore. To kill the 4 hours we decided to meet a relative and we went to the bus stop as auto guys were not interested- the destination was too close I guess. The bus stop had metal bars/pipes (like we have outside ticket counters) to let people stand in line and I saw people standing in a line. I was astonished to see the discipline of the people here so I went and stood in line, my mom and dad were behind me. As soon as the bus arrived, everyone broke the line, jumped over the metal rails and squeezed into the bus. The obvious question: Why the hell were they standing in a line if they had to do this? So we dropped the idea of visiting this relative as the city seemed a bit deranged. So we headed back to the station where things seemed better as the food was really good.
Finally we caught the train to Mysore; this was a much better, cleaner, air conditioned and less crowded train. Upon arrive at Mysore we took a rickshaw to the lodge. While in Mysore, we saw the Palace, the Chamundi Hills, the Mysore Zoo,an art museum with Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings, my Dad’s college where he had seen a ghost and we did some shopping. The Palace is indeed incredibly beautiful and with its lights on in the evening, it takes you to dreamland.
People are honest in Mysore, down to earth and hard working, I heard there are lots of snakes in the city but I never saw one. We then took a guided tour to nearby temples at Halebid and Belur. Now I have seen several temples including the giants: Sri-Rangam, Madurai Meenakshi Amman and the temple at Tanjore but I was quite literally blown away by what I saw at Halebid and Belur. By size they are microscopic compared to the giant temples I mentioned but by the intricacy of art and workmanship that is done on these temples at Halebid and Belur makes them much bigger than anything else I had ever seen. We also made a pit stop to see the great statue of Bahubali at a place called Shravanabelagola, which is carved out of a 60 feet tall monolithic rock.
Our tour bus then took us to the great Krishnarajasagara dam and of course a march to Brindavan Gardens, famous for water fountains which was a site for many movies. Today, I do not quite remember what all I saw in those gardens however I do remember the long march on top of the dam that we undertook to reach this place and to be quite honest I was more thrilled by the engineering marvel in the form of this great dam which was the brain child of its chief architect Sir M. Visveswaraiah. I have seen the Hoover Dam in USA and I have seen many more in many other places but the Krishnarajasagara dam will remain in my memory forever.
We were quite literally exhausted with our travel in the city and then packed up and took a bus to the hill station of Madikeri or Merkara. The bus reached late in the evening, the place was very dark and after stretching our legs in the guest house for an hour or so we headed out and the only place we could see that evening was the Omkreshwar temple. That evening was a bit spooky.
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