Scene of an accident at  Hunsur  Rd. on Christmas morning.

You can’t figure out from the photo, but this person is walking backwards,  on Radhakrishnan Ave.

Crows and dogs turn up before tourists do,  at the Mysore Palace gates that are yet to open for daily visitors.

Sunil Nayak,  posted this  on the fan page of   My Mysore Facebook . The crowd gathered near K R Circle (am I right, Mr Nayak ?)  to witness the Dasara procession.

On road to Balal Circle.
Worship of roadside trees in Mysore  was documented in Glimpses of India, a 1895 publication.  Mr  Dinakar has a copy.

Five of  18 different modes of transport jostling for space on our roads. This photo is taken from the gate of  Sidharth Hotel, near the Mysore palace. A friend and old Mysore resident Raghu tells me that the ground on which the hotel has been built was once the palace laundry.

Most people watch movies on pirated DVDs  hired from neighbourhood video library. The  Film-goers who prefer to see them on the big screen at their  local theatre  usually  get to know  what’s on and which movie has gone  from the wall posters such as this one on Dewan’s Rd. in the  Shivrampet area.

They have an eye for roadside flowers; and keep a plastic bag handy. This one,  on his rounds along the university playground,  is equipped with a steel hook,  so that he can pick that yellow flower his bare hands can’t reach up to . My friend Dr Y N I Anand blogged about  shoulder-bag walkers in a post - A Thing of Beauty is Joy for an Hour.

Remember Leif from Eagan,  Minnesota ? He is on top of this jumbo on the palace grounds.

MYSORE: The Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) launched a publicity campaign in Mysore on Friday. Officials attached to the corporation briefed about various measures introduced in the sector to travel agents and promoters in the city. The TTDC are aiming to increase the inflow of tourism to the state by 20% through such publicity meet across India. They have organized such meets in New Delhi, Kolkata, Orissa, Bhutan, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

TN tourism secretary V Irai Anbu said, “Publicity campaign has been organized to create awareness among stakeholders in tourism sector about the new package tours introduced by the corporation. They had organized the meet in Bangalore four months ago and there was good response”.

Anbu stated that TTDC has decided to promote lesser-known tourists spots and attract more youths to the state through conventional tourism. More focus is being given to adventure tourism to attract youths. The secretary said boat houses at Mudaliarkuppam and Muttukkadu have become popular among adventure-loving tourists. Besides operating regular boating, they are having wave runners (water scooter), speedboats and banana boats.

Trekking programmes in forest and hilly areas are also been initiated. Anbu felt all southern states should join hands to promote tourism.

In his presentation, tourism director A C Mohandoss said with a view to provide quick and convenient mode of travel to amusement centres and places of culturally/historically importance in the state, the TTDC launched hop-on and hop-off tour packages, viz, one within Chennai and another between Chennai and Mamallapuram.
“Special buses operate every 30 minutes. The fare is fixed at Rs 200 each and the ticket is valid for two days.

The response to the package is overwhelming,” he claimed. Meanwhile, TTDC are promoting rail-cum-road package tours from places such as Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Lucknow. Here tourists are provided confirmed rail tickets from theses places to Chennai, from there they will be taken to different locations in special buses. “Tailor-made package tours are also offered to tourists based on their place of interest, besides South India tours, East West Coast, TN tour packages,” he added.

The director claimed that TTDC introduced about 248 tourist-friendly autos in TN of which 144 are plying in Chennai alone. The drivers have been given training on soft skills and English language.

From TOI

Ranganathittu Pakshi Dhaama

Nestled about five kms from Srirangapaana off the Bangalore-Mysore highway is the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary located in the middle of the river Cauvery.

The bird sanctuary is about 16 kms from Mysore and it is better to combine it with your trip to Mysore that would invariably include Srirangapatana.

“Pakshi Dhaama” as it is called in the local parlance (Kannada) comprises six islets in the middle of the Cauvery river and is isolated from human habitat and surrounded by lush green paddy and sugarcane fields irrigated by the water drawn from the river.

These islets were formed in 1700 A.D. when a dam was built across the Cauvery. But it attainted Protected Area status way back in 1940 when the venerated Dr.Salim Ali – noted ornithologist – made a trip to Mysore, studied the area and recommended that it be declared a bird sanctuary.

Surrounded by green canopy of vegetation and bamboo, Ranganathittu is home to birds of different plumes and many species come here to roost and nest from all over the world during winter between November and March. But the sanctuary may be visited any time as the islets are always inhabited by different species of local birds.

One may sight at Ranganathittu spoonbills, open bill storks, darters, white Ibis, little cormorants, egret, heron, partridge, river tern, stone plougher, painted storks. The migratory birds lay eggs and breed here and fly away during the monsoon and return the following year, a cycle that is repeated annually.

Boat ride is available for tourists and photographers who can view the birds from close quarters.

From Jiblin

The scene at Narayan Shastry Road early Sunday morning.  Our morning walk,  my wife’s and mine,  is rarely uneventful nowadays ,  particularly after My Mysore has happened.  I keep  looking  around as we walk. And my wife’s complaint is our pace has slowed down,  as stop at every other step to take a picture.  That most of what I photograph  get deleted when we look at the results  on our computer screen  is quite another matter.

At Chamaraja Double Road.

Over Subbarayakkare

A kink in its growth,  Crawford Hall.

320 Alarm
329 Alarm
338 Alarm
347 Alarm
348 Crawl Out of bed
400 walk to Shala
430 open Shala
445 Practice
625 Rest
630 Teaching
1000 Cleaning Shala

Tomorrow again…..

Much more appreciation for my teachers!

Star of Mysore carried a four-page supplement on T S Satyan on Saturday.

Now that the city has an airport with no flights,  Mysore is faced with the problem of generating passenger and cargo traffic that would make it worthwhile for airlines to come in here.  A recent seminar on the issue came up with the idea that Mysore-based IT corporates and other business establishments should hold out a promise of minumum seats occupancy to lure the airlines.

The idea doesn’t seem all that bright or workable because no airline can be expected make its business decisions on the minimum seats guaranteed  by a few corporates. Anyway,  no such assurance can be binding on individual companies.  Besides, airlines are reported to be looking for a state subsidy by way of a cut in fuel tax (27 perecent in Karnataka).

Air-traffic projection by Infosys has it that 800 of its employees  would use air services every week to Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. To be meaningful such projection ought to be able to give a break-down, city-wise, and also in terms of seat-occupancy on weekdays,  and weekends.

It doesn’t require much study to say that much of the corporate employees traffic out of Mysore is on weekends. Check the Chennai Shadabthi bookings from Mysore on Friday/Saturday. Viewed in this perspective, Mysore could at best function a weekend airport, to start with.

Among other wild ideas that spring to mind:
1) Make Mysore a cargo hub for carrying  vegetables, fruits, flowers, and other perishables from distrcts and nearby Nilgiris to  major market centre. This would need deep-freeze storage facility.
2) Airlines operating from Mysore would do well to  look at traffic to tier-2 destinations such as Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Bellary, Mangalore, Tirupathi, Cochin.
3) The Airports Authority of India  could consider developing  a shopping complex for air passengers and also local residents, in view of the relative proximity of the airport to the city limits.
4) Doubling the railway track could attract air traffic from towns on railway route.
5) Early completion of the Mysore-Bangalore expressway would make Mysore a credible alternative for air passengers in Bididi, Kengari and other Bangalore suburbs on the Mysore-end.

In response to my mail, inviting contribution to our photoblog, I heard from a non-resident Mysorean (NRM), Dr U B Vasudev. He is an NRM who keeps in touch with Mysore on a daily basis – ‘first thing I do as I wake up is check mail and read Star of Mysore online’.

Excerpts from Dr Vasudev’s mail :  It was not easy for me to accept the news of Sri Satyan’s demise. I don’t want to believe it even now….
The Satyans
When I was asked to edit the commemorative for the World Kannada Convention 2004 in Orlando, the first thing I wanted to do was collect as many articles as possible from  Mysoreans… Mysore was home to several literary figures whom we used to see or hear about while growing up in Krishnamurthypuram. I made an effort to get them to contribute articles. In the bargain, I got to know some of them and that is the greatest thing that has happened to me.

The Vasudevs with GTN .

In 2006, when in Mysore, we spent some time with GTN and TSS. Both of them gave us inscribed copies of their books, which are among our prized possessions.

I don’t know if an “anthology on Mysore” will ever come to light ( a move that stays abandoned in cyberspace, after much discussion in  the defunct  MyMysore website) . I received a lot of mail congratulating me for the idea of writing down our anecdotal experiences while growing up in Mysore, but no one has contributed anything to date!

To Dr Vasudev – Wonder If you can locate photos that could go with your anecdotes,  for possible publication here.

It’s on everything ,  everywhere. In Mysore Kannada is king.

Hi
This is with reference to your profile in Monster.com

Regards
Rugmini.R.S

Fivedays back this sign-post in front of Crawford Hall  wasn’t this straight.

A lot can change within a week,  even in Mysore.

Sending gifts of flowers and cakes on special occasions to your close ones and intimate contacts in Mysore India can make the relationship more endearing and everlasting.  You can create memorable moments in your association or relationship by just the simple act of sending custom-made and specially packed floral gifts and cakes.  There many occasions in your life on which you can send these gift items.  Now sending them to Mysore India is very much easy with online shopping.In the past it could give you hassles and concerns especially if you are under tight schedules.Suppose you are a busy professional mostly on the move and you want to send a cake on the eve of Diwali to your niece in Mysore India Or,you want to send specially cut and packed floral gifts on the 20th birthday of your fiancé, but you are too busy to attend to the arrangement of the gift and its dispatch.If you entrust it with someone, you may be apprehensive whether it is done properly or not.

Now sending any gifts, be it flowers, cakes, designer garments, or gadgets of your preferred choice to Mysore India you can engage the service of online service providers.You need only to sign up in their website and place order with them and give the dispatch address.  Payment can be done though online banking or through your credit card.You need not be concerned as to the quality or promptness of the gift or its dispatch and delivery.  As they are professionals in the field with years of standing, quality will be good and you can be confident that the gift will reach your kith or kin in Mysore India by the expected time. Now there are several establishments which deal in online sale of flowers,cakes and other gifts in all prominent centres.

trhntynjetn

Institute of Oriental Research, viewed  from University Grounds.  The institute figured in the news recently,  during the visit of the great-grandson of Benjamin Lewis Rice,  who pioneered epigraphic studies in Mysore State ; published the  Epigraphica Carnatica;  authored the Mysore Gazetteer published in 1877-78 ; and drafted  the first Census report for Mysore State in 1881. Thousands manuscripts he had collected are now held in the Oriental Research  Institute.