An Evening In Mysore

 Year end monsoon trip to Bangalore and Mysore

It was my very first trip to Bangalore and I was, as anyone can guess, excited to visit such a royal city. I had never been to such a beautiful place where the presence of uniques culture was much more prevalent. This city steeped in historical elements. Prior to my trip to Bangalore I collected the information from my friends who had been there a number of times and to got more relevant information browsed the Internet.

We started our journey with all similar trip expectations. It took us 12-15 hours to set our foot in this majestic city Bangalore. When we got down at Yeshwanthpur from there it took us just half an hour or so to reach Bangalore bus stop. We were instructed by our other friends not to get into any kind of interaction with the autowallas there. We wanted to take help of someone to stay in a lodge there but later decided to look for on our own. We looked for the hotel and booked our rooms. 

For a few hours we friends took rest and then got ready to explore this beautiful city.

We visited so many beautiful places. We visited Tipu's Palace, Bull Temple, LalBagh, Vidhana Soudha, Museum and great many places. Visiting these places we were enthralled to have acquainted ourselves with the real beauty of architecture and history of India. We visited City Mysore – Gorgeously Attractive. We also visited Maharaja Palace of Tipu Sultan. 

We took one day tourism package (8am – 9pm – Full Day Tour Package). We had seen so many beautiful historical places in Mysore. We have visited Jaganmohan Palace (Art Gallery), Zoological Park, Gardens, Chamundi Hill (Chamundi Temple), Mysore Palace, St. Philomena's Church, Gumbaz, Rangantha Swamy Temple, Krishnaraja Sagar Dam and Brindavan Garden.

If any one ever has the chance to visit Bangalore or Mysore then I would suggest you visit museums, Art galleries etc,. (Places we had been to when we were here on our trip) because history of India is so very much alive in these places. You will be amazed to see rare painting in museums here or the art of carving or sculpturing.

Pasted below are only a few of the pictures which I captured in my camera. I read or listen to a number of stories of Tipu but the real heroism was surfaced when I visit this Tipu's Palace.

Tipu's Palace in Bangalore

Tipu’s palace (also called wooden palace) was said to be destroyed during the battle between the Britishers and ruler of Mysore – Tipu Sultan. You can see beautiful paintings on walls here. Ceilings show unique pieces of real art.  It is completely built with sand and teak wood. This Palace looks the same from front end and back end. It is also called as monsoon palace because in summer it would be very cold inside and in winter it would be warmer inside.

LalBagh Garden

Lalbagh Garden: Britishers took control of the open land here prior to what has now become a very famous tourist garden. Britishers illegally occupied the land during their rule and later they built Glass House based on the model of Crystal Palace in London for Prince Albert Victor. After independence it came under karnataka government and it added a few more acres to make it what is presently 240 acres. It is now called LalBagh Botanical Garden.  It is a really a very nice place. We enjoyed a lot. We captured so many beautiful views in our cameras. We went to the top of the rock which was there in the garden – the place from where you can be sure of receiving view of the whole city Bangalore. 

Science Museum

We went to Science Museum. It was awesome. Learning history, again we came much closer to the past life in India. No sooner did we enter the museum then we found big dinosaurs. It was really a knowledge gaining experience. We saw olden days telephones, mechanical calculators, old typing machines, olden days bus engines, petrol engines, music instruments and Models designed by scientists and many other things that If I put down then it will hours for you to read. 

I even learned a bit about the use of solar system. The use of solar energy in our day to day life.  

Jaganmohan Palace

Art Gallery is a place where we came to know a lot about our past India. Truly it contains the largest collection of artecrafts. Paintings depicting scenes from Ramayana , Mahabharata. Even works of one of the prominent painters like Raja Ravi Varma can be seen here. There are more than 2000 paintings present there in that gallery. Lady with a Lamp is simply one of the most astounding paintings here. It was painted by Haldenkar. It is kept in a dark room but it seems to illuminate everything present round itself.  Painting displaying mughal art also there. Paintings made on grain of rice can be viewed by magnifying glasses here.  Works by Nikolai Roerich and Ravindranath Tagore are also present here. One of the much known paintings painted by one of the British army officer named Col. Scot is present here. The depiction of the ensuing war between Tipu Sultan and The Britishers is so very explicit.

Visitors can find weapons of war, sculptures, antiques, Musical Instruments, brass or metal ware, olden days coins etc,. French clock here is sure to attract your attention to itself. A miniature soldier is seen parading after every hour.

5th Biggest Nandi Statue in South India

Chamundi Hill or Chamundi Temple is the most famous temple in Mysore. It is at 3000 feet high above the sea level. We travelled to the top of the hill. We enjoyed a mind blowing travelling when we were on our way to the top of it. It was zigzag route and I was sitting next to the window seat. I enjoyed views of beautiful landscape. The temple which was built in the 18^th century were so beautiful. It reflected the glory of past days. It is built with stones and standing outside this temple is Mahishashur Statue.  Nandi Statue - the 5^th biggest Nandi Statue in South India is located outside here.  We captured a lot many pictures.

Mysore Palace

Mysore Palace is unquestionably the most beautiful palace. It ought to be included in the Seven Wonders of the World. Perfect example of architecture, exuding past glory. It was building in the 14^th century and took almost 14 years to get it completed. Outside view of it was breath taking and equally impressive was the view from inside. Great many halls here in this palace such as Durbar Hall, Meeting Hall or Royal Wedding Hall. Temple, Church and A Masjid were on all its sides.   

After visiting the church we travelled to sriranga patnam. It was18 kilometer from Mysore. The place where Tipu Sultan used to be. It was destroyed when Tipu Sultan was killed. The Secret Gate through which the Britisher intruded and attacked Tipu Sultan.  History became so visible and we actually perceived what must have happened at that time.  

Vishnu Swamy Temple

Rangantha swamy temple was said to have been built in the 9^th century. It was near to the Tipu's death place. This is one of the biggest and the oldest temple in Katakana. It is dedicated to Rangantha, who is a form of lord Vishnu.  Rangantha swamy is led on the snake and it is the main attraction of the temple

We ended up our trip by visiting Brindavan Garden

Garden was exquisitely beautiful. Dance under showering water was really very enjoyable. We friends enjoyed to the fullest. We savoured every moment there. The sound of the gurgling of water whenever the music stopped was so very lovely to listen to. We were so engrossed in going to the different places here that we forgot to book our tickets at the end.  We were really so involved in capturing every part of the City Mysore in our cameras that we didn't pay attention to the time flow. It was already night and we thought of starting off at the same hour so that we reach our city Hyderabad by afternoon or at stretch by evening. 

Whole night travelling didn't make us tired. We were, on contrary, enjoying every moment of that beautiful night. The shining moon with so many stars studded in the sky seemed to be travelling with us. Well, I forgot that there was nervousness too. It crept in when we had to take our bus from Mysore to Bangalore. It was already 12 in the morning.

Our Nervousness increased more when an Autowala (Auto Driver) came to us and informed us of some untoward incidence (Told us that two people were killed). We were confused and felt unsafe for a fraction of second. Then it came into my mind what my friend had suggested to me: “Never ever trust Autowalas there.” We shook our head and said thanks and moved from there. When we reached the bus bay we understood the situation. He was actually lying to us to make us more and more frighten. Our faces lit with smiles again and we boarded to reach our city via various stops.  

As not all things could be described so I advice my friends to go at least once to see what Bangalore and Mysore have to offer to tourists or travellers.