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Mysore is just a small place compared to Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka State, which has become a big 4 million people industrial city. I nevertheless titled this page "Mysore" because I'm showing more photos of Mysore than of Bangalore. Hi tech industries and research institutes are not as photogenic as a Maharaja's palace!
MG Road (MG for Mahatma Gandhi of course), is Bangalore's fashionable shopping street in the city center. Ordinary people shop in the Gandhi Nagar area near the train station.
The Archaeological Museum, set in the well manicured Clubbon Park laid out by the British in 1864, was only fairly interesting and the Technological Museum next door was a farce!
Bangalore has undergone dramatic growth since 1950 as the result of the Central Indian Goverment's policy to give priority to hi technology industries and post graduate education over agricultural development and primary school education. The results have been remarkable for the high caste urban yuppy minority that has benefited from that deliberate choice but they have been catastrophic for the much larger majority of village dwellers who have remained poor and illiterate.
Tipu Sultan's Palace, completed in 1789, was also disappointing, half of the rooms were locked up.
This small mosque not far from the train station was as interesting as anything else I had seen here. I did not linger and took an early morning bus for Mysore.
As I looked at the rice paddies out of the bus window, I could not help wondering how it had been possible for the educated elite to manipulate the democratic process in such a manner as to ensure that most of the public funds that had become available during the last five decades would have been expended to further their own minority interests at the expense of the majority of other Indian citizens.
Why did the peasants not get organised to form a party demanding the redistribution of farmland, demanding schools, roads and rural clinics?
II would have understood that the peasants would not have been able to do anything had India been a military dictatorship like Myanmar during all that time but that's not the case. India is the world's largest democracy. There is a free press and free elections are held from time to time. The governments responsible for the exploitation of the majority by the privileged few have been freely elected by that very majority.
Villages like this one have no electricity, no running water, no sewers and no latrines. More than one third of all Indians have no latrines! Did the peasants living here vote to keep latrines and hygienic facilities out of their village? Do they like to see their infants die of typhus and diarrhea? How can people be made to act so irrationally against their own vital interests? How could this collective madness be explained?
The bus got to Mysore before I found a definitive answer to my troubling interrogations so I decided to concentrate on the practical problems on hand. I found a decent hotel (Ganesh Palace), not too far from the bus station for a reasonable price (5.80$US for a room with private bathroom) and took a motor rickshaw to the eastern gate of the Maharaja's Palace.
The visitor's entrance was on the other side. I had to pay the guard a few rupees to get in this way and I had to buy a ticket as well but it was nice to get the first view of the palace from the grand avenue in front as the architect had no doubt planned it.
The construction of this huge palace began in 1897 to to replace the old wooden one that had just burnt down and was finally completed in 1912. The Wadiyar dynasty , reputed to have originated in 1399, lost their kingdom to Muslim invaders in 1761 but were reinstated by the British after their defeat of Tipu Sultan in 1799.
The side view of the palace from the tourists entrance is also impressive. It was forbidden to take photos inside and we were too closely watched for me to try. That's unfortunate for it was interesting to observe the excessive opulence of the interior. I would have liked to show pictures of it to let you draw your own conclusions.
Below on the left the Sri Shveta Vaharaswami Temple near the southern gate of the fort (tourist's entrance). On the right, one of the Wadiyar Rajas on Statue Square next to the northern gate of the fort.
KR Circle, also known as the new Statue Circle, is the hub of Mysore.
The Jahan Mohan Palace, built in 1861, not far west of the Maharaja's Palace (Ambavila) is now an art gallery.
I had considered going to Belur and Halebid northwest of Mysore but changed my mind at the last minute to go directly to Ooty in the Nilgiri Hills south of Mysore. That's one of the advantages of travelling alone. Here is a tea plantation as seen from the bus window on the way.
Ootacamund, called Ooty for short, was one of the cool places the British would flock to when it got too hot at lower altitudes. Ooty Lake, with a variety of boats for hire, is still a pleasant place to go for a picnic but now the crowd is mostly Indian with a sprinkling of tourists.
The British used to come here for the cooler climate but I did to ride the Blue Mountain Train from Ooty to Mettupalayam on my way to Coimbatore and Madurai further south.
The last coach of the train (first class) was chock full with a noisy group of German and French tourists who had taken too much beer and wine with their lunch so I was quite content to ride in this second class coach with the well behaved locals.
Ooty was the fashionable hill station but several other small places offered a cool retreat from the summer heat.
The train is pulled by an old diesel engine from Ooty to Coonoor where it was replaced by this older still steam powered cog wheel locomotive capable of handling the steep inclines down to the plains below.
Below, you can see the ratchet like central track and the great cog wheel that engages it to pull the train up or down the mountain.
From Coonoor hill station it's downgrade all the way to Mettupalayam.
There are not many of these antique cog wheel trains left today.
Descent to Mettupalayam in the plains below where I caught a slow and crowded train to Coimbatore. There, I got on a comfortable air conditioned night train to Madurai.
