At long last, I gave up, slowly opening my eyes and finding a few edibles close at hand, decided to give it a go. Our stomachs and sleep had been sacrificed for time, and as I soon realised, so had my dad's leisure. Instead of enjoying the beautiful scenery (read dirt of Bangalore), he was working hard on a powerpoint presentation which was the agenda of this whole journey. And he was the man who had taught me all I knew in life about planning ahead, time-management and the defects of procrastination and last minute work, phew!
The road journey was decent, a single halt for a small drink (MILK) and a good rate of knots kept us, or rather my dad on schedule (just). After a little preaching on the geography of Mysore, we arrived at our destination, rushed through breakfast and formulated our plans.
My dad was to address some auditorium and I was to be escorted by my driver to the Mysore Zoo, World famous across Karnataka.
After a slight amusement in the form of losing our bearings in the heart of unknown land, my driver and I headed to the zoo entrance, paid the amount required and headed into the zoo.
The zoo was good, decent I should say. Nothing to boast of (except India's only gorilla) but not just another road side zoo. It had good standards, but nothing out of the ordinary as they say. A few rare birds, poisonous snakes, ugly reptiles, a tiger here, a lion there, some animals which had transversed continents for us to see, a few members of the dog family and we were done. The details of the lengthy discussions between me and my driver, two people who knew nothing but pretended we knew a lot, more than the other atleast, would have proven to be quite instructive though I would claim that my facts were based on science and his were based on village folk-lore.
In twenty minutes, we were back at the audi, my dad had finished speaking but the program was still on but it was worth the wait for the sumptuous meal waiting for us at the end of it, a whole and full-fledged plantain leaf meal.Need I elaborate further? Of course not. These avatars of meals are just out of this world, something you can expect in heaven, an inspiration for me not to commit sins. Wonder what they serve in hell!!
The lunch left our stomachs full and we enjoyed the luxury of our car till we reached an age old house (estd. 1934), belonging to our relatives, built by my great-grandfather and it had a billion odd connections with several members of our family. Legend also has it that my grandmother first met my grandfather in the bosom of that very house and there I was, that classic feeling in me, something I don't know why but I always associate with the British. The railway track across the road further enhanced the colonial connection, something which was more starkly visible in Mysore than in Bangalore.
Having visited the place many times, I felt at home and took the liberty of snatching a quick nap and watching the last part of the fourth day's play of a cricket match, stood outside in the slight drizzle, said good-byes after seeking blessings and headed back into the car just as the drizzle turned to heavy rain.
The rest is obvious, got lost in the city for a bit, cursed the rain, flew down the Mysore road, or rather the Bangalore road, a few philosophical notes exchanged between my dad and me with my driver listening as keen as ever, got caught in a traffic jam in Bangalore, reached home, a few smiles, storied for the day exchanged and a dreamless sleep.
Man ! Were you lucky to be cruising at 55 kmph. I took the trip from Bangalore to Mysore on 11 Oct 2010 Monday and took 2 hrs from Richmond road to Outer Bangalore (Rajarajeshwari Nagar) and 2 hrs from there to Mysore.[And I was driving through hell myself not a driver!]
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