Mysore Dasara : '21 and 240'

"Yeah Karthik, we understand that you are going to write about your recent trip to Mysore on Vijayadasami (28th Sept '09). But what is that '21 and 240' in your title?"

Wait. Hold on. I will tell what that numbers are later in this post. I have just started.

Let me start this post with a brief para about my last year trip to Mysore on Vijayadasami followed by this year experience.

Last Year Dasara Trip - A Recap:

Last year, myself and Bala started from Bangalore at 4:00 AM and came back, the next day 4:00 AM. 24 hrs Non-stop! After reaching Mysore, a tour operator explained about a package which shows all tourist places around Mysore. We were taken to Chamundi hills, Shrirangapatna, zoo and ended at Brindavan gardens. But the tour operator at a later stage of tour told that he can't take to palace due to heavy traffic. We were not happy since the purpose of visit was to see the beauty of palace. Though the tour ended at Brindavan gardens at 8PM, we decided to go back to palace and have a look at it. We went to palace and was there from 9:15 PM to 10:00 PM. We were not satisfied with that palace visit. Last year itself we decided to plan for only palace visit this year.

Flashback over! :)

Bangalore-Mysore:

This time Jithu joined me and Bala. As advised by Jithu and Bala, we started from college at 7:29 PM [you know why :)]. This time we planned to go through train for a change. There was a passenger train to Mysore at 10:00 AM from Bangalore central railway station. We boarded that train after having breakfast. The train was full at Bangalore itself. 6 were seated in 4 seater and 2 in 4 seater. The train stopped at all stations and packed in as much commuters as possible. Adding fuel to fire, it gave way for all the other trains that passed in crossings. The travel time was 4:30 hrs. We reached Mysore at 2:30 PM. First time, a train travel was tiresome. We should have taken bus or some express train. Its ok. We go out for tours only for experience [bad ones preferred :)] . So we enjoyed that too.

Mysore:

The procession had started at 1:00 PM itself. We at least got to see the climax Jambo Savari of Goddess Chamundeshwari. Heavy crowds on both sides of procession road. We tried to reach somewhat near the read. Heavy crowd. We were crushed. Police were beating public who try to violate barricades. We missed beatings by few inches. Missed an experience of police beatings :P

The procession ended by 3:30 PM. The entire crowd marched towards palace. It took half an hour to reach near palace. Human heads everywhere. I wish to see the helicopter view of that crowd. We were informed that palace will open at 6:00 PM. So 2 more hours left. We were just roaming in roads around palace and then got seated in a park near palace.

The crowd which has come to enjoy dasara was mostly lower middle class and poor. Families were seated in rounds eating at park. All had packed food from their home itself (scared of food price in restaurants?) . We were enjoying the smile in the face of ladies and children. Probably, this should be the only time they come out in a year. The husbands were smiling at times. They have their own problems to think (what would be the return ticket price? how much debt I have? how am I going to do the marriage of my daughter? etc.) . Be it in the passenger train or in that park, we felt like seeing real India which is missing in Forums and Garuda malls of Bangalore.

Enough of sentiment! :)

When myself and Bala were chewing these issues along with groundnut, Jithu was busy playing games in his mobile. He was a lil pissed off. He was not enjoying till then.

The palace was opened at 6:00 PM. The entire crowd waiting for that rushed like a calf running to drink the milk of its mother. There were enough chairs put before palace and we enjoyed seeing the palace. We took a round around palace. All the lights were switched on at 7:00 PM. Wow! I can come to Mysore every year to see the beauty of palace in lights. The entire crowd was excited. No one wished to take the eyes off from palace. We saw a smile in Jithu's face!

Mysore-Bangalore:

We enjoyed the spectacle till 8:00 PM. We left palace, had dinner and took a volvo bus to Bangalore at 9:30 PM. We reached Bangalore at 12:00 midnight. Thankfully, there was a Hosur bus ready to start at Majestic. We boarded that and got down at E-City at 1:00 AM. This time we missed the major part of procession. So next time, I wish to plan accordingly.

This was another memorable trip to me.

"Hey looks like you have finished the post. You haven't yet told about that '21 and 240' in title"

Ok. I will tell it now. I will first tell what that 240 is. It is the ticket price between Mysore and Bangalore in volvo bus which we went. So I hope you rightly guessed what 21 is. Yes, it is the ticket price from Bangalore to Mysore in passenger train we took. Look at the difference. 12 times!!!! That is India now. This kind of imbalanced economy is not healthy.

I don't have a solution. As a selfish Individual, I just see what can I take from this trip?
"I can live with both 21 and 240"