Mysore – A treasure mine.
Mysore is a beautiful place. For the casual tourist, we have a palace, a hill, a water reservoir, a zoo and a bird sanctuary.
For the artistically inclined, we have some more palaces (Jaganmohan palace, Jayalaksmi Vilas, Lalith Mahal).
A few well maintained lakes (Kukkarahalli and Karanji), a church (St. Philomena’s Church) and a few museums (Regional Museum of Natural History, Folk Lore Museum, Railway Museum and Oriental Research Institute) all dot the city.
The best part is that all of these places fall within a 15 kms radius of the city.
And what is more? There are even more places within the city unknown to many people.
Location No.1: Varuna lake
This lake is 10kms from Mysore on T-Narsipura road. One edge of the lake is a man-made stone banking over which the T-Narsipura road is constructed. I am not sure whether this is a man-made lake or a natural one. The calmness of the lake and the near absence of people near the lake make it an ideal outing place. We went cycling to the place today morning and it almost resembled an European cycling experience.
Left: Varuna Lake, Mysore
Right: Sigmaringen, Germany.
Don’t they both look the same in terms of beauty? I just love Mysore.
Left: A small wood land on one edge of Varuna lake. The trees however are being cut and I don’t know whether it was legal/illegal. In any case, I feel that the lake’s edge could be planted with trees. I have some work to do here.
Right: A cycling path at Sigmaringen. I wish we had cycling paths at Mysore too. I read a few months back about an European group of tourists who were building cycling paths all by themselves themselves somewhere near Madikeri, Karnataka. I feel we too could do that. I only need a few helping hands to do this.
Location No. 2: The oldest Banyan tree of Mysore
This is at least known to a few people in Mysore. The tree according to Prof.Ramalingam is more than 200 years old. The tree has been named a heritage tree of Mysore by the committee headed by Prof.Ramalingam according to whom it is more than 200 years old. I had been there in 2005 once and it was full of prop roots. However, I was told that much of the tree’s aerial prop roots were cut to serve a movie shooting. The banyan being a banyan has recovered since and now it also carries 2 boards. One says the tree is "xyz God" (That is a really powerful psychological tool to keep away illegal wood-cutters). Second one says "Heritage tree of Mysore". These should most likely help conserve the tree to some extent.
As we returned back to the city of palaces, I had just one thought in mind… If only we could build a cycling path in the city, safe and away from the roaring trucks and polluting autos…
