Mysooru -pre Dussera

Had a business meet in Namma Mysooru.I looked forward to being there, just before dussera and the city gets all dressed up.
I saw the Palace and all the artisans and pandal decorators busy with getting the place up and running a week hence for the grand event. Bamboos could be seen staked up at strategic places and there were any number of workers, engaged in splicing them, making intricate patters and designs from them. I saw quite a few exhibition stalls being put up. Lorry loads of 'stuff' was being downloaded in every vacant space around the stalls.The air was crying out 'i am getting ready, i am busy, dont disturb now'.If it is wonderful to be in Mysooru during dussera, i found a particular charm to be there, to see her getting dressed up!Had a feeling of a peek preview in the green room before the concert!
Went for a walk on a very salubrious morning. It is a weather to die for!Wide open spaces and leisurely lifestyle of people is very soporific.Went and looked up the krishna temple in ontikoppal and also the railway quarters nearby , where appa was brought up.I tried to recreate all the stories of their childhood that appa and more so athai have been narrating all these years.The road from the colony leads straight to chamundeswari temple and i was told that every friday appa and periappa used to walk up to the temple , a good 5 kilometres away,early in the morning; then come back and later go to their school.
Brindavan garden enchants you in the evening hours just as the sun is setting; never mind that one has seen many a garden with similar attributes both in movie songs or otherwise.Kannambadi dam as athai prefers to call it, is massive and the bone of contention of two neighbouring states. But this year has been bountiful year of rains, hence the acrimonious debates did not trouble me then.
Mysore palace and the leisurely and luxurious lifestyle of those times, the intricate works of all the walls and ceilings; not an inch of space is left untouched by an artist.Employment guaranee scheme, raja's style.
Spotted six elephants doing pradakshanam of the temple inside the palace grounds.They were so graceful, walking side by side, that my colleague ran and captured them on film.
A nostalgic getaway and some business got transacted on the sidelines.