Mysore Trip Set 2 - Mysore Palace - Includes Rare Photos

Our Visit to the Palace

Mr. Raghuraman, who is part of SDM Institute's administration and a person who lived in Mysore for a long time, was nice enough to accompany us in touring around Mysore and had too many information about Mysore to share.

The palace, standing majestically, on that cloudy evening, posing for my Panasonic Lumix TZ3

Though I am a amateur photographer, I am a little fanatic about it and I am crazy about trying to get the best out of my sexy camera.....I was trying out the zoom of my camera and checking its reach - its a 10x optical zoom @ 12 MP, but can be stretched upto 60x @ 5 MP including digital. Trust me it is quite stable even at that zoom, if you are a little used to it....

I shall be increasing the zoom gradually in the next couple of snaps...

The gaurds of the palace..... you should see the carving of their body and the fury in their eyes...... You will thank god that they aren't real.....

Now comes the restricted section I was talking about. Thanks to SDM institute for getting permission to see this room....

There were two part for the room that we went..... Both were completely restricted and provided access on special approval only for high profile visitors......and they clearly said no snaps .....

They made us enter the first room, which was very dark. The guide (a history professor actually) came in and locked the door from inside first....Now the room was pitch dark... only with a very very strong smell of Teak wood & its varnish.

Then he switched on and we were awe struck to see a beautiful armory. It had all kinds of weapons including those of Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali.

They had the original boxing gloves (metal ones with sharp teeths). There was also a pair of weapon which can be contracted and expanded after piercing into someone's body. So, if it is pierced into the enemies stomach, expanded inside the stomach, twisted a little and pulled out.... it will come out with the complete intestinal system......you should see it to believe it......

The entire sealing was made of teak and one person is specially appointed for cleaning and varnishing it at regular intervals. It was shining as it it was only constructed yesterday......

The next room is where all the animals that were hunted by the Honorable Wodeyars were kept. Thankfully, the professor was kind enough to let us take a few snaps here.....

The first one is the head of a elephant, that the king hunted.

This was the pet dog of the wodeyar..... click on it to see it size......

Mysore Trip - Set 1 - SDM Institute

We went for a official meet on behalf of Custommerce - a tink tank forum organised by SDM Institute and Servion (my company), to identify & discuss major challenges we face in Customer Interaction related industries and arrive at possible strategies to handle such challenges.

Last year we had a special event for Middle and Senior Managers alone at SDM Institute of Management, Mysore.

We had a real nice time during and after the event.... A fews snaps and details are below.

We were privileged & enthralled to touch and feel a 1965 model Benz 200 in the premises of SDM.

A Quick History about Merc 200:

Following the huge success of the the 190 series (over 350,000 cars in 1961), Merc did a face-lift to it and announced a more powerful 200 series in 1965. It has a Fintail rear wings and angular styling.

This one has a column mounted gear, dual circuit brakes with front discs. It was petrol engined and had a twin-carb. It produced around 95bhp.

It was famously called as the "Fintail" 200.

Our team for a few snaps....

A beautiful Nataraja in their Cafeteria

The next set details aour visit to the Mysore palace and thanks to SDM management and Mr. Raghuraman, who was kind enough to take us to a few previleged sections of the palace (restricted to common public)

Around Bangalore - Part 3 - Thonnur Kere

Thonnur or Thondanur is a very picturesque village near Melkote in Mandhya District. It became extremely famous and played an important role in Karnataka's history after Ramanujar moved here, when he fled Srirangam to escape the torments of Kulothunga Cholan in the 12th Century AD.

There is a beautiful lake here that is constructed by embanking the gorge between the adjacent hillocks. Ramanujar is said to have conceived the design of the lake and created the lake. He is said to have called it 'Thirimala Sagara' (ocean of the sacred hill)

Tipu Sultan named it as 'Moti Talab', as he was able to see the pebbles at the base of the lake clearly from the top.

Significance:

This lake is very significant for vaishnavities as Ramanuja had taken bath here and they prefer doing the same before visiting the temples around.

Caution: The lake is not very safe. Make sure someone familiar with the lake is around or pay the watchman there a little and take some tips for safety, unleass you are an expert swimmer yourself.

Otherwise it is a calm place to spend for your lunch time with family... No commotions, no crowd, no unnecessary commercial outlets.

General warning: ( If you are from around this place and feel I am wrong, please feel free to correct me and I will update the same accordingly)

There is a very nice way of taking money from you. you will find a few small boys (coming one after the other) they will just hang around you.... give you one or two info about the place and smile at you when ever you see them..... finally will tell you that they need to buy books / notebooks for school and ask you for money.

Now..... that is very very sensitive for anybody, who is even marginally kind and when elders are with you....you will have no option at all...... (I could help but give him some money).... It could be a complete scam..... just wanted to warn you all.

Below are a few pictures I had taken there...

Sunset View @ T.Kere (This one alone was not taken by me. Thanks to the original owner.)

Around Bangalore - Part 2 - Melkote Yoga Narashimar Temple

Yoga Narashima Temple:

The hill starts a little away from thirunarayana temple and has around 400 steep steps (completely filled with beggers on either sides). So, in case you are taking elders, please ensure that you hold them when climbing up the stairs, as most of the time the grill on the sides will be unusable because of some occupant.

A View of Narashimhar Temple from the Kalyani Pond ( This photo was taken from internet )

The temple is very old is one of the 4 important narashimha sketrams. A the name suggests, narashimhar here is in a yoga mudra posture. Legend has it, that, after the killing of his father, Hiranyakasibu, Prahladha came here and did penance in a cave in this hill for many years and the lord, graced his prayers by self manifesting himself on a salgramam rock right above where Prahlada was penancing.

The cave is called Bilaswarga and was open for public till Jan 08, when temple jewellery worth some 1.5 crores were looted. Now it is completely blocked for public access. It is said the tiger skin on which Prahladha sat and did penance is also still kept safe.

The Temple has been built in Hoysala style in later years.

The sides of the temple has magnificient panaromic view of the surrounding places. The gopuram has a lot of beautiful sculptures.

Main Gopuram

Gopuram above the inner entrance

The Gopuram above the main deity

There are beautiful images on the mail dopuram doors and ceilings also.

Om Namo Narayana Namah