Mysore Palace Tour

Namaste All,
Week six of the TTC finished last Friday night with another 120 Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutations), and after that not many of us course participants had a lot of ambition for the weekend. Another factor persuading me to stay close to home this weekend was the out of season rain storms. These are brilliant rain storms. All day you see billowing thunderheads accumulating overhead, and then when the air cools with the evening these clouds burst and splash a fantastic cascade over everything underneath. There is booming thunder and cracking lightning to go with it, and getting caught in a couple of these downpoors here took me back to Appalachain evening storms. Monday now, it seems the weather has cleared leaving the city refreshed, and me along with it. It's week seven of TTC, and I feel good.


Elle takes a short nap in Yoga India during our "5 minute break" after asana practice and before pranayama (breathing exercise) begins. It's a short 5 minutes. I think she's ready for the weekend...


To get some R&R I went to the Lalitha Mahal Palace on Sunday. There's a nice pool here that's usually deserted, so there you are, behind this magnificent palace, chilling by the pool like you own it. There's guards around the perimeter, guarding YOU. You feel like royalty with only a 200 rupee (5 dollar) entry fee. After maxing and relaxing poolside I strolled around the inside of the palace, you know, like I owned the place.



Behold the fantastic dining room. At lunch time there are musicians playing and there's a grand buffet spread. The palace is a hotel now, but you don't run into many guests.


It's easy to have an imagination in here, to pretend you're the Raj in 1924...


Lounging on the balcony...


Strolling through the halls...

What I'm not showing you are the slums you drive through on the way here. This is an essential Indian paradox: opulant wealth beside bottom tier poverty.


On to the famous Maharaja's Palace, Mysore's number one attraction.


To be honest, I haven't seen Mysore's number one attraction during the day yet, except from outside the gates. But the big draw is to the palace on Sunday night, where come seven o'clock they turn on a million and one light bulbs and give it the illusion of shining like diamonds. The above picture is the palace before it's bejewling lights are turned on. Note the portentious clowds blue in the darkening night sky.


Naturally there are boys selling stuff. This guy's peddling balloons.


The lights have just come on! I like the silhouette of the mounted police riding by. Funny thing though, the special lights came on with crowds oohing and ahhing, and five minutes later the rain began.


Far from being discouraged by the weather, I noticed the rain had a way of making the palace lights appear brighter.


The rain drove crowds of tourists under cover to take pictures of the palace from shelter. We thought it was raining hard, but we hadn't seen anything yet...


See how the light reflects in the wet pavement? Bad weather really improved my palace pictures...


Sure I was wet but I was having a good time.


A million and one lights all turned on at once. I think this is why they have to turn the power out in Gokulam three times a day, to save up the energy for this tourist draw!


Chaos!
The rain had mostly stopped, but then I heard commotion at the other end of the palace and turned and saw rain coming. It was coming so hard, a wall of water falling in sheets accross the pavement, coming right at me. I ran away from the rain, but it caught up with me in moments. Still, I got a head start running before other people, and lucky too. The place neerest me for shelter was a small cubby hole of a place, and when I got there people were already crowding in, pushing, squeezing against eachother.


We pushed and crammed and hustled and bustled. Luckily I got in, got my camera safe, and waited out the worste of the deluge under cover. That was a little taste of monsoon weather for me, what happens days on end here in June and July. All things considered, the night was a grand adventure ending with a soaking ride home through flooded streets.

And here's a metaphorical post-rains picture for your consideration. You make up your own metaphore.

Thanks for everyone's emails and comments; I'm feeling the love. May it come back to you all in blessings tenfold.
Cheers, Ethan