Today we were on the road again to Mysore about 3 hours on India Stretchable Time. The travel included major highways and then some fascinating back roads as the bus driver took a more scenic route as he missed the turnoff. No Tim Hortons in sight but no problem.

Because of the rural route we were able to get out of the mini bus and talk to the people planting rice which turned out to be an agricultural research project. The rice paddy was being leveled by a team of oxen and the work crew were preparing to plant the seedlings, which were about 6 inches tall and placed a few inches apart. It takes about 3- 4 months for the rice to mature and then it is harvested by hand.

Rice paddy being prepared

Another curious thing we ran into or rather ran over were piles of what looked like hay on the road. It turned out to be millet and it wasn’t that someone lost their load. It was placed there on purpose so the traffic would run over it to take the millet off the stalk. From there it was swept up and winnowed by hand out of flat woven baskets.

In Mysore, population 1.8 million, we toured another Vishnu temple which was quite a different experience as it was an active temple full of black stone carvings of the deities and throngs of people praying. We all got a blessing from the priest in the form of red sandalwood paste on our foreheads which the local guide assured us meant we would live to be 100! The devotees were bringing fruit, flowers and sheafs of tulsi or holy basil to leave at the altars.

Next on the tour was Mysore Palace built in the early 1900’s after the original palace burned down. It was opulent with richly carved ceilings, massive pillars, exquisite tile work. We were surprised to learn that many of the building materials came from England, Scotland, Italy and other countries.

I tried to find out about Krishnamacharya teaching yoga to the young men of the court at the palace but our local guide didn’t know anything about it. Only certain parts of the palace are open for visitors anyway and the local guides don’t have a lot of English beyond the basics of the tour. I did manage to find out that the current Maharaja who is only a figurehead still has 14 elephants which are kept in the local forest and taken back to the city for parades at festivals, the next one being in October. I could just imagine the majesty of that kind of a procession on the massive parade ground with the Maharaja in his solid gold howda or throne atop his personal elephant named Arjuna!

One more temple today for Chamundi, an incarnation of Parvati which is a very popular pilgrimage site high on a hill overlooking Mysore. We chose to be driven instead of climbing the 1,000 step staircase. We didn’t go in as there was a huge line up and everyone was getting tired anyway.

Out front of the temple is a small cement pit about 2 feet deep for making offerings of fresh coconut, You buy the coconut and then heave it into the pit to smash it open as the coconut water is considered a pure offering to the Goddess. The resident monkeys eat up the leftovers.

Another type of offering available for sale all around the temple are small baskets containing two coconuts, a red rose and a pink lotus flower. Such beauty and simplicity.

The hotel we are in is quite lovely! I was expecting something much more basic but so far they have been just great. Our touring companions are a lot of fun and I think we were all relieved to find that we have many values in common. We all love Indian food and share many pots of chai in the morning. Tonight at dinner Subash told us all about how his marriage was arranged and about his wedding in Darjeeling in 2001 with more than 1,000 guests!

More from Incredible India soon!