Happy DASARA…

We (Jain Saab*, Tripathi Ji, Gagan Ji, Bhai Saab Ji, Amit Kumar Tiwari Ji, Me, Photographer Ji) went to attend the famous DASARA celebrations in Mysore.

We hired a Qualis along with a DUMB driver for our trip. Started from Bangalore at 8:00 in the morning.

First Stop: Breakfast:

Everybody wanted to have breakfast as soon as we crossed the border of Bangalore. Jain Saab tried to stop the cab at every Dhaba but our driver was not even listening to Jain Saab’s calls. Finally, the driver too felt the hunger and stopped in front of a roadside Dhaba, KAMAT. There was a huge crowd in the Dhaba. We could not get a place in the restaurant and decided to quit. But, a lady in Pink stopped us from quitting the restaurant. She was…She was…She was simply awesome. Don’t want to get into her description. Anyways, for the next 1 hour we did wait and eat whenever waiter managed to get us something eatable. Even after an hour we could not get a cup of tea. Finally, we tried to cancel the order but couldn’t do that either. After waiting for 10 more minutes we got a glass full of tea. It was the costliest tea I ever had in India..12 bucks for a glass… it had been a long time since we were breaking our fast so we moved to the cab cursing the Dhaba that the service was very bad.

Second Stop: Sri Ranga Patnam

Parking charge: 30 bucks…

Couldn’t say anything about this…so paid the money…after we alighted from the cab an uncle asked us,”Saaheb, Ghode par baith kar photo khicha lijie..?”… We refused and moved to relieve ourselves…The charge was 2 rupees for anything you want to do there. This was also the costliest venture of this sort ( In India of course) so we had the first snap in front of the “2 Star Sarvajnik Shauchalaya”. After taking the snap, we started towards the temple…suddenly everybody had a nice ear to ear smile on their face…Reason: A bunch of SSS (Please refer to my previous posts for getting information about SSS) girls were also going to the same “Chappal Stand”. In the temple we followed the girls…Believe me, the girls were very religious.

After getting out the temple girls disappeared and we moved ahead towards the “Chamundi Temple”.

Third Stop: Chamundi Hill

We reached the temple and had a look at the crowd in the queue. We had enough faith, so we joined the queue. In another half an hour we did the Darshan. Jain Saab was very worried about the starting time of the Dasara celebrations…so he confirmed from 5-6 persons about the starting time. It was already late. We had refreshment outside the temple and started for the palace ground. On the way to Palace ground, I asked the driver about the ceremony. He replied, “Who sab to kal hi ho gaya”. After listening to the driver, Jain Saab lost control and started asking the other people, who were waiting at the signal, about the ceremony.

Jain Saab: “Bhai Saab, are Bhai Saab…Xcuse me...”

The guy whom Jain Saab was questioning was on phone. So, he did not reply and the signal turned green.

We reached “Mysore Rajmahal”

Fourth Stop: Mysore Rajmahal

The famous “Jhanki” had already left the Rajmahal. We were late. We followed the crowd and finally after asking few persons we tracked the Jhanki. It was very crowded; thousands of people were following the elephant which carried the “Chamuda Devi” idol.

After watching the crowd, following well written poem came into my mind:

Shaher ki es daud me daud ke karna kya hai?
Jab yehi jeena hai dosto to phir marna kya hai?
Paheli barish me train late hone ki fikr hai
Bhul gaye bhigte hue tahelna kya hai?
Serials ke kirdaaro ka saara haal hai malum
par maa ka haal puchhne ki fursat kise hai?
Ab ret pe nange pao tahelte kyu nahi?
108 hai chanel phir dil bahelte kyu nahi?
Internet ki duniya ke to touch me hai,
lekin pados me kon raheta hai jaante tak nahi?
Mobile, Landline sab ki bharmaar hai,
Lekin jigri dost tak pahuche aise taar kaha hai?
Kab dubte hue suraj ko dekha tha yaad hai?
Kab jaana tha shaam ka woh banana kya hai?
To Dosto Shaher ki es daud me daud ke karna kya hai
Jab yahi jeena hai to phir Marna kya hai?

We tried to get into the crowd. The frequent farts and the unbearable thrusts forced us to move out. We came back to the Palace. The “Jhanki” had to end at a stadium where many events were planned. We decided to go there.

Fifth Stop: The Stadium

Somehow we managed to get the tickets required to enter into the stadium. We were happy now that we still had chance to watch the complete celebrations.

First event was Motorcycle Display. It was a wonderful performance by the motorcyclists. We asked Jain Saab to take some snaps. He tried several times but all we could see in the snap was the empty ground. The motorcyclists were really fast.

Some cultural events were also planned but as we do not understand Kannada, we decided to make a last ditch to view the Palace. Outside the stadium we started hunt for the tea. Suddenly, a guy stopped his motorcycle as some distance from us. He parked his vehicle (It was a shining Hero Honda Passion). We suspected him as a “Chaiwaala”. But his looks were deceptive. Finally, Jain Saab took the initiative to ask him whether he is Chaiwaala or not. But before he could ask the guy started screaming “Chai…Chai…Chai”…We fell about laughing hysterically. Chai waala wasn’t able to understand the situation. We had tea and moved towards the Palace.

Palace was looking extremely beautiful. We had a lot of snaps there and decided to return to Bangalore. Everybody was very hungry, so we asked the driver to stop at any Dhaba. A couple of Dhabas passed but the driver didn’t stop. This deed of driver infuriated Jain Saab and he firmly asked the driver to stop at the next Dhaba.

Second last Stop: Delhi Dhaba

The name of the place was Delhi Dhaba but I would rather call it “Ganda Dhaba”. We ate “Ganda Khana” at “Ganda Dhaba” and started our journey for Bangalore. On the way to Bangalore the tyre got punctured. We decided to dance on the road until the driver changes the tyre. But we were too tired to dance. It took hardly five minutes for the driver to change the tyre.

We reached Bangalore at 3 AM.

We had really nice time and Mysore Dasara is simply fabulous.