sojourn in the paradise of palaces!

"the whole object of travel is not to set foot on a foreign land ,it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land."

Having spent the better part of my life in Karnataka, i feel mortified to say that i have never explored Mysore,so it did seem like a foreign land when we stepped out of the railway station and got a whiff of the City of Palaces. Now before u guys put attack on my tepidness i have to admit that i HAVE seen the mysore palace(with n without lights!) and the zoo and the Brindhavan gardens and the KRS dam a zillion times. These places were more like a stop over on our long journeys to Kerala and also the preferred place to go when relatives landed for a visit,we do ve a dearth of decent places to see in Bangalore,oh did someone say MG Road,Brigade Road,CMH Road and the plethora of malls that ve come up in every corner! Shucks!

June 23, it was a glorious morning when we landed there,the sky a white tent cut out with wisps of grey clouds. The air was fresh after the early morning showers and the trees a resplendent green. Where the nature's green unfolds!
Beautiful !, oh boy i kept reiterating that word every nanaosecond till my friends threatened me with dire consequences. *chup* !
After a sumptuous breakfast at adigae manae we boarded the bus to Chamundi Hills (20 bucks bus pass rocks i say!). Our travel around Mysore was the most economical till date, to start wit Buffalo(some ppl call her swetha!) and I boarded the train with just one ticket *bloop*,now this is interesting cos we were told by some screwball that the train tickets cost only 25 bucks ,so i very happily went to the Ticket counter with 50 bucks and told the guy two tickets to Mysore.Our pal heard it wrong and handed back 6 bucks and a ticket with 44 bucks stamped on it. Very very happy with the drop in prices (we assumed it was 22 per head) and thanking Lalooji we boarded the train. After reaching Mysore we get to know our wrong doing (Savi gave us a mouthful for our kantri budhi!).

The trip to Chamundi Hills was zzimbbly amazing. White clouds hovering the hill top, sea of green on either side, and a chill early morning breeze. After the darshan we boarded the bus to Devraj Urs road(supposedly a very hip-n-happening place). We got to see the real mysore just staring outside the window. Laidback people,nicely tarred roads, buildings that look like palaces in every third corner(even the hospitals are build in that fashion!), easy moving traffic, and all this admist greenery. It was 2PM by the time we covered the entire stretch of Urs road(up and down,on foot mind u!). Next Pit Stop :: Infy Campus. Oh boy,i rubbed my eyes in disbelief.! Are we still in India ? Not really the concret jungle i had expected. Manicured lawns, open wide roads, nicely maintained shrubs, glistening buildings , well stocked Recreational rooms (20 TT tables,insane or what!) and hoardes of ppl walking around with tags,it was sadistic to know that ppl actually worked on Saturdays. NRN hail thee..!
We started our trip abck to Bangalore at 6:30, with the correct number of tickets off course.! Chatting away to glory and munching away the madhur vadas we returned back to Bangalore and its choc-a-block traffic, fast paced life and the clogged drains (monsoons are hittin us hard this year!).