A Trip to remember

Each time I wear your travelling shoes (Oh!!! I wear my normal shoes, just with a new enthusiasm), I feel happier. Some days before, I read a quotation about travelling,

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

But, keeping that in mind, I still keep on seeking newer landscapes, newer people.

This time I visited Mysore, the cultural capital of Karnataka. Before going to the travelling details, I would like to share some of the historical facts about Mysore. Mysore, or better say the Kingdom of Mysore was ruled by the Wodeyar dynasty, except for a brief period in 18th Century when Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan usurped power. Even thought, the latter demolished a large part of the kingdom in order to remove the legacies of the Wodeyar dynasties, still after independence, the Wodeyar was allowed to retain his kingship and respect, under the title of Raj-Pramukh.

Now coming to our tour, it was a planned tour, and we made prior plans for the trip. We did not want to spend night outside, and so our preferred time was to go out early in the morning and return late night. We booked train tickets which left Bangalore at 7:00 in the morning, and reached Mysore at around 10:00. The cab was at our door at around 6:00, and we safely reached the Bangalore City Station by 6:35. We packed some breakfast, got on the train at 7:30 (half an hour late, however, it adjusted the time towards the end).

Chamundi Temple Entrance

At Mysore, while we were trying to plan some ways or routes to get to different places, we got confused. Moreover, we got surrounded by the local autos, and cabs. Finally, we chose a cab, who fixed Rupees 1200 for the whole day, and would put us back to the station by 8:30 pm for our return train.


So, our journey in Mysore started. First of all, we went to the Chamundi Hills, where there is a temple of Devi Chamundi. Mythology tells that the name of Mysore was taken from "Mahishashura" as this was the kingdom of the Buffalo-Demon. Devi Chamundi, or Devi Durga came here and fought with him, and finally killed him here.

Mahishashura atop the Chamundi Hills

On the top of the hill, we saw the Chamundi Temple and a large statue of Mahishashura. There were some cultural programme going on, surrounding the statue. The temple has two different entrance: One was free for common, and another was with a ticket for Special Darshan that takes less time.

On the pedestal road to the hilltop, one could see a giant statue of Nandi, the bull.

The Chamundi Hills provide a panaromic view of the city. On the way down, we saw a man with telescope who showed various spots of Mysore from the hills. Among others, the notable spots were like the Lalitha Mahal Palace, the Mysore Palace, the Karanji Lake etc.



Our next destination was the Mysore zoo. It was out of our plan, but really speaking, visiting a zoo affter so many days was thrilling. We saw giraffes, rhinos, tigers, elephants, lots of birds, monkeys, and lots of other things, and it was well managed, and well directed. They run a special battery-operated vehicle within the zoo campus, those who prefer not to walk so much. It saves time also.

After the two spots, it was the Lunch time for us, and the cab took us to Om Shakthi Restaurant. It was a nice restaurant with North Indian food available. We asked the cab driver to have food with us, but, I think the cab driver politely turned down the offer, and so we could spend our private time privately.

Mysore Palace

Post lunch, we went to the Mysore palace straight away. We had to enter barefoot, and this is the first time we tried an Audio Guide. It was not bad, but, it requires a lot of time, and only if you have some two hours in hand, then you can completely hear it. Anyhow, we shared it, and one was listening to the audio, and narrating it quickly to the other.

In the Mysore palace campus, we had two different palaces, most probably, they are shared between two parties of the present Wodeyar families. The first palace was better managed, which showed the king's durbar or the place from where the kingdom was managed, judgements were passed, and royal guests stayed. The second palace was the residential palace of the kings, and the queens.

St. Philomena Church

After the palace, we moved to the St. Philomena church. The foundation of this church was laid by the Maharaja of Mysore in 1933. It is a catholic church, and we saw pictures inside telling the story of Lord Jesus from left to right.

The story of St. Philomena dates back to 3rd century AD. She was blessed to childless parents after they prayed to God. When Philomena was 13 years old, her father took her to Rome to obtain the favour of Emperor. The emperor was enthralled by her beauty, and wanted to marry her. But mshe refused, and vowed to give herself to God. Consequently, she was tortured and beheaded in Rome.

After the St. Philomena church, we moved to Srirangapatna. It is a town situated mere 13 km from Mysore. It was the de facto capital of the kingdom under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan. The town takes its name from the Ranganathaswamy Temple.

Daria Daulat, the palace of Tipu Sultan

We just saw two places of interest in Srirangapatna. The first one is the Daria Daulat, the palace of Tipu Sultan. The place closes at 5:00pm, and we came here at 4:50pm. So we ran, and the ticket counter was already closed. However, the people allowed us to go inside without tickets. So, it was a short stay there. it is not like a normal palace showingh different places  of the palace. Instead, it is more like an art museum, with pictures explaining the history of the place. It also had different relics like coins, weapons, dresses etc. However, due to shortage of time, we had to rush through some items, skipped some, and finished watching it.

Ranganathaswamy Temple

Next, we moved to the Ranganathaswamy Temple. As our cab stopped here, we could see many horses standing there for a ride. We chose a horse, and both of us rode on the same. Though my friend was very afraid in the beginning, but, it was really exciting for me, and I hope the same for my friend too. I really wish I could upload some of the our pics on the horse.

The Ranganathaswamy temple was a large enough temple in the typical South Indian style. It is said to be one of the important pilgrimage in South India for Vaishnavites. However, there was not much crowd.

Then we moved to the last destination of Mysore, the Vrindavan Gardens. It was again some distance by the cab, and on the way started the twists of our journey. Till now, it was a smooth journey, and everything was going on the right track. But, on the road, suddenly, the cab had some problem. Anyhow, it carried us to the Vrindavan Gardens, but after reaching there, the driver said that the car has some problem, and it was not possible for him to take us back. So we have to return on our own. But, we will be facing no problem as there are lots of bus services from here to the Mysore Station.

Fine, we do not have everything under our control, and since we had enough times, we thought of enjoying the place. So, we moved forward, and bought tickets. As we entered the Garden, it started raining. And we got drenched. I heard about musical fountains, and lots of other things, but those things seemed to be insignificant at that time. We tried to stand on a bridge across the lake, but rain started showing its power, and we had to move back in search of some shed. Here, I discovered somegthing good, actually the only good thing of Vrindavan Gardens -- the Govi-Manchurian. We ate chowmein, and the Manchurian in the rain, and then came back to the cab to take our baggage.

Now, our cab driver came to the cab, and he forgot his keys to some place, and hence he had a tough time in opening the car gates. After 10 minutes of try, he took the key from someone having the same car, and opened. I don't know how do car owners remain safe knowing that anyone can open their car using key of the same car model. Anyhow after paying for the car, and the tips, we moved towards the bus.

Two buses were standing there, and we had over one hour to complete a journey of 20 minutes (the 20 minutes approximation was given by the cab driver). In one bus, there was no seat to sit, so, we moved to the other bus (my decision). And, even though this bus was not full, it started before the other bus which was already full. So, we started on a good note.

Twist of fate: In the road, we saw the other bus overtake us (okay, no problem, here we have a place to sit). However, in the next 5 minutes we had to get down from the bus as the bus broke down. Some engine probem, or whatever it may be, the bus had to vacate, and all passengers on the bus were waiting for the next bus.

The next bus came full, and I was laughing at myself about giving so much importance on the seats. Here we had to stand, or seat on the rod, crowd crushing you, and everytime the brake is applied, you have to tell sorry to the person, on whom you fell. Moreover, the rain was powerful, and the bus had cracked from mirror, wipers not working. So, the bus reduced its speed, and speed of our blood circulation increased.

Our train had a departure time of 8:30pm, and the bus dropped us at the gate of the Station campus at 8:28. We were walking fast, and soon we saw an autorickshaw going towards the autostand. It was some 200 metres if not less, and still we took the auto without thinking anything, and my friend instructing me to get the money in hand, so that we don't loose a single moment. As we came infront of the platform, thankfully the train was in platform no. 1, but we saw it was already moving. We jumped, threw the money, and ran to the train. We got the unreserved compartment towards the end of the train, and somehow we got into that. The next dialogue that I spoke was 

"Aaj tak life mein ek train nahi chhuti meri"

My friend was upset at the style we got into the train, but, we had no other options. Anyhow, we went to our allocated berths in the next station which came around half an hour late, because, the train stopped just outside the Mysore Station for long. If they had to stop they could have stopped in the station itself, but, life sometime throws some spices.

Anyhow, we reached Bangalore at 00:15, and we had a  cab booked who took us to our place at around 1:00am. We were tired, but, really we enjoyed the day. This tour has some special things  for me. The smooth flow till the end with the spicy climax was the cherry on the top because of a happy ending. However, Mysore will always remain at a very special place in our hearts.

Relationship Transition: Past to Present and Future

Some pieces of advice to people who are in the process of transition from one relationship to other. I know that these advices are easy to preach, and hard to follow, but by now I know, that I am not wrong at all while I put these in blog.

• A past relationship is like a scar left after an accident. The more you want to scratch those, the more scar marks are left permanent. It's always better to leave those scars as they are, they will heal with due course of time, with no marks left.

• Don't carry your baggages from your past relationships. Sometimes the baggages are too heavy to accommodate in the present relationship. You not only make it difficult for your partner to live in peace, but, also make your own life complicated unnecessarily.

• Don't hold things that keep on reminding you and your partner of your past. It might feel good to you thinking that you are being nice with your old partner, or you are caring your old partner, but, certainly it puts a lot of pressure on your present partner.

• Believe this: Your old partner is not concerned with how much you "care" for the person. To him, either you are there, or you are not. If you are not with your old partner, then their pain doesn't reduce by any bit if you "care". Moreover, by "care", don't make their moving-on in life more difficult.

These pieces of advice hold for them only, who do not think about going back to their past relationships.

If you have any plan of moving back to your old relationship, please don't move forward just for the sake of moving forward. It hurts a lot to your new partner.

Relationships and Trust

"You must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go."

Mary Oliver - In Blackwater Woods

Today I am going to speak something about relationships. Before I start anything, I must admit that I am a loser in maintaining relationships, and I am last person to advise anyone on this sensitive issue. So, anyone who is reading, take it as some sort of confession, or some sort of self-help blog.

Trust is the force that holds it altogether in a relationship. Well, Love has to be there, but, even though you love someone very much, and you really can't trust the person, think once again. It is impossible to have a healthy relationship where trust is missing. So, coming to the point, how can one define Trust?

Trust is a very difficult thing to define though it might sound very easy and simple to understand. I trust you - does that mean that I have full faith on you? Or is it something more than that? I really had to google it, and I found a lot of things. I don't know how to acknowledge so many people in a single blog. So, I leave that work.

Trust is KNOWING. It is knowing something that you cannot confirm with others.
Trust is BELIEVING. It is believing something you cannot see.
Trust is DEPENDING. It is depending on someone completely even when everyone else tell that you should not.

Trust is the ultimate form of INTIMACY. You may be miles away from each other physically, but, if you trust each other you are so close. You may be so close to each other, but if your relationship lacks trust, you are no less than light-years away.

So, after so much of advice on trust, how the trust is built? That is the major question.

1. Be Loyal: We must be loyal to ourselves and our partner. Many may question about how being loyal to own-self matter, but, if we are not loyal to ourselves, we can never to loyal to anybody. And the later part, being loyal to our partner - if I are not loyal to my partner, how can my partner trust me? Or, how can I expect my partner to be loyal to me, unless I am loyal?

2. Be Truthful: A difficult piece of advice. What I tell might hurt my partner now, but, don't get swayed away by the short-term gains. In the long run, being truthful pays off. Don't lie ever, irrespective of however small lie it is. Even the smallest and safest lie, if caught, can sow the seeds of distrust, which one day grows to be a huge tree to ignore. Moreover, even if the lie is not caught, the small lies leads to bigger lies, because after some days, we might get used to tell lies, and think that these lies does not hurt anyone.

3. Forgive: Forgiveness builds insurmountable trust. If I cannot forgive when someone tells me the truth, how can I expect the person to tell me the truth next time.

Wait a minute here. I hear something from inside - Can forgive but can't forget??? I can forgive someone, but can't really get some incident out of my mind??? What do you think? The un-forgetful mind will leave you so easily??? It will keep attacking the inner sanctity of trust. It will give rise to grudges, held-back resentments, and all other negative emotions. If you want somebody to trust you, you need to leave bad memories behind. Once an apology is made, we need accept it. That doesn't mean that we are free to act out and then expect blind forgiveness. It means genuine repentance should be met with genuine acceptance of the repentant, leaving both free to move ahead.

4. Be Humble: There is not a single relationship, where the partners are perfect. Every people is prone to make mistakes, and making effort to move on requires a lot of humility for both the partners. When you are trying to forgive someone, you require humility, but never forget that when someone is telling you something too personal, that requires similar, if not more, strong determination, and respect for you, your relationship and feelings.

5. Be Honest: Honesty is the best policy, they write on the walls in shops, but, even though we don't write over our relationships, if we are not honest, we cannot expect honesty. Honesty might cause problems in the beginning, but, just go for it. For, if it causes problem, the relationship that we are looking for is actually hollow, and if it works, then we are in a blissful world of trust.

6. Stand up and Stand for: Whenever life laughs at your partner sarcastically, stand for the person. He/she does not need your advice, does not need your sympathy, and surely does not need your criticism at that point. Just make the person feel that you are there always, no matter what happens. You are there to share everything, good or bad with him/her, but you are there, and will always be.

7. Respect and Value: We must learn to take our partner as they are, with their individual wishes and desires. Just like we respect our wishes, we must understand that he/she also respect their wishes. Whenever there comes a situation when you two have to make a decision, respect your partner's point of view, value their inputs. Being willing to compromise on matters says your partner that "You are worth a sacrifice". You must amicably respect your partner's position and understand his/her situation.

Relationships are important, as important as anything else in life that is worth fighting for. Trust in a relationship is a two way street. Both parties must behave ethically and deal truthfully. The simple element of trust between people affect the entire life. It enhances joy, peace, harmony - and everyone deserves these in their life.

The Rainy Season: I

As a child, I used to hate the rains. It gave me such a tough time. As I get ready for my school, suddenly, there is the heavy rain, and my parents telling me: No School for today!!! Oh Shit… How can I meet with my friends, shout with them, play games…

Ah! Playing Games; This is the basic reason I hated rain. This rain had another peculiar habit of coming at afternoon, just at the time, I got ready to go out to play with my local friends. And All Rain and No Play used to make me a dull boy. I used to stand by my window, and watch the rain, cursing it, and waiting for it to stop. If it took a long time to stop, then again the next bomb: What will you play in the mud!!! How I wished I had some sort of arrow like that of Arjun (Mahabharata Character), so that I can shoot it, and can block the sky, stopping it from raining. Particularly the rain songs, I just hated them, and the authors. I still remember one popular Bengali song which every child is taught.

“Brishti-Brishti-Brishti,

E kon aparup srishti,

Eto mishti mishti mishti,

Amar hariye geche drishti”

“Rain-Rain-Rain,

What a fine creation,

It’s so sweet-sweet-sweet,

I lost all my senses (sight)”

I liked an English rhyme much more than that, because it depicted my scenario, I could identify myself with the character.

Rain Rain, go away,

Come again another day,

Little Tommy wants to play.

Later, when I was in class 10^th, one of my cousins taught me extra two lines of this rhyme.

Rain Rain, go to Spain

Do not show your face again.

Somehow, it is a stronger statement. At first, request the enemy. When he agrees to your request, give him a shocker suddenly. Here, request the rain to go away, and to come on another day, and when the rain agrees, then give the shocker – Do not Show your face again.

Blog Life: A New Start

After a long gap I read blogs written by some other people. Generally I read unknown people's blog. After all in blogosphere, who cares to know the identity of a person, when we all are global citizen at least here. But, yesterday evening as suggested by Binti, I read the blog posts of someone I know. No, I don't know him personally. But Binti knows him, and is a huge fan of him.

I think I should thank Binti for her suggestion. I read a lot of blogs, and once again, I experienced the nice feeling which I loved when I read blogs, commented on their posts, overall when I try to build some relationship with someone, I don't know, and I prefer not to know personally. Blogs generally contains stories from life, sometimes they have personal stuffs, because, you can share those things here without any regrets later, because people don't judge you based on those. I love to read the stories, the feelings, the memories. I like to share my thoughts with them on some particular topic, like to disagree, and debate on something. It gives me a  lot of personal space, where none of my acquaintances tell me what I should do, and what I should not.

Moreover, once again, I got the enthusiasm to write blogs. And as always, this time too, I made up my mind to write frequently. I hope that I will keep on writing new things, on new topics, and on new experiences. I hope to get some readers, who will share their thoughts with me, does not really matter if they agree or not to my insights, just love discussing things.

Anyway, I should thank Binti once again, for she showed interest in my blog life, and that she gave a new start to it.