Dasara trip

Typical Indian Style, I got invited to go on an expedition on Friday, leaving Saturday morning at 6:30 from downtown Bangalore. A friend at work had a trip to Mysore, there were extra seats on the trip available so I was offered one. Since I didn't have any big plans for the weekend, I decided to go along. Dasara is a 10 day festival celebrated in South India (maybe elsewhere, I'm not sure). There is a lot going on in Mysore for the whole 10 days, culminating on the last day which is Monday this year. Apparently it is divided into 9 days of Puja, 3 each to Lakshmi, Saraswati, and Durga, followed by one day of celebration. It is a time when there are poojas for tools and other implements of work. This came originally from blessings of weapons, but got widened to everything. For example Manju took our car today (sunday) for pooja and it will come back to the house with garlands and other indications of the blessing. We see lots of buses, trucks and other vehicles with garlands and banana leaves attached.

Anyways back to the Mysore trip. We left at about 6:30, in 2 Inovas. Someone from the German Consulate was one of the guests, my co-worker and his wife and several other Germans. Also a couple of Indian ladies. First off we went to breakfast in Mysore, a nice spread typical of any hotel restaurant. After this we were given turbans (sort of helmets with gold material on them) for the men, and shawls for the women. We had to take pictures out front of the hotel. I got a paper copy, but not an electronic one. I hope to get one yet from one of the others who did get pictures.

After this ceremony, we went to the house of someone that the travel agent who arranged this knows in Mysore. An aside-- the travel agent, Manuel, is used a lot by my co-worker and this was a freebie of sorts to show off Mysore to him/us. Manuel lives in Mysore, and knows a lot of people there apparently. He used to be in Industry, but retired from that to be a travel agent. So back to the house. We got to see the decorations they do for Dasara. They had one for the outside of the house, then one with what looked like a depiction of a procession in the main entry hall of the house, and then they had this one, in a separate room. Apparently it is tradition to pass these down inside the family, and for them to be set up each year. Once set up, friends and associates are invited over to see the decorations. It is a way for the families to get together once during the year and meet. We also heard it is a way for the young men to get to meet the young ladies in the social circle who might be 'interesting' to them.

After this we went off to see the palace. I've seen it two times, so I wasn't holding much out for this. But on the way we stopped, and then these 4 horse drawn carriages (of sorts) showed up. We were decked out in our finery, and off we went to the palace. I must say, since we were in the back, it was amusing to see the reactions of the locals and Indian tourists following us. There was a lot of smiling, laughing, and some hand waving. There were also looks of complete befuddlement and confusion. The sad part of the trip is that the vehicular traffic didn't give way at all for the horses. They honked, cut them off, etc. This was a bit uncomfortable for those up front, we (Max and I) didn't notice it too much at the back as one of the cars was following closely to protect our entourage.

Then we arrived at the Palace. We got special treatment there. We skipped the ticket line, we were able to take pictures inside the grounds, but had to hand in our cameras for the palace tour. As we went inside, we were escorted by a policeman. He was obviously there to help us get to specific parts of the palace quickly without having to do the whole tour. Then we were escorted behind the ropes to get close to some objects (ie the golden throne) which the general public had to stay far away from. Not quite the royal treatment, but obviously something special. After the palace, we went for lunch. This was at another hotel (The Windflower) Very nice overall. Didn't get to see the rooms, but the grounds were lovely and the food good.

After lunch, we went to see some wrestling. Wrestling is a tradition around Dasara, particularly in Mysore. We were asked to put on our turbans etc. Then we walked through the muddy parking lot, into the stadium area. We were immediately escorted up on to the VIP platform, and introduced to the Local Minister, along with other dignitaries. Then we were seated to watch the wrestling. The stadium was pretty full of people. But the audience was 99% men. The only women I saw during the whole time were a couple of press people, a couple of other dignitaries, and the ladies who were with us. During our time there we got to watch them put the orange turban on one of the dignitaries. Christina wondered how it stayed on, so they volunteered to put one on her. The begining, and the finishing. And then the result, as we were in the parking lot afterwards.
The wrestlers had to keep going, even when the rain started. It didn't come down hard, but it did get the mat wet, so there were 3 guys who were going around the mat, trying to avoid the ongoing wrestling, drying it with rags. They were able to sop up a fair amoung. Also the Policemen seemed to spend most of their time either chatting or watching the wrestling, not watching what was going on in the crowd, etc.

After the wrestling, we got to relax at a hotel for an hour's nap, and then off to the palace again. We got to see the elephants they use for the ceremonies, we saw the camels too. Then we got to see the royal elephant, and royal cow. It was too dark for good photos, but I did get a few. Look on my flickr if you want to see them. Then we got to see the procession, and the lit up palace. There are over 9000 15 watt lightbulbs on the outside of the palace. They only light it for festivals and one or 2 nights a week for a couple of hours. Otherwise it uses too much electricity. I took a few photos there from the palace grounds, and as well from the hotel where we had dinner. The hotel is a former palace built by one of the Mysore Kings as a guest palace. We got to sit on the 1st floor terrace overlooking Mysore for our dinner. Then we left Mysore at about 10pm and I finally got home around 12:30-- definitely a long day, but a fun trip.