Memories from the City of Palaces

I had always wanted to scribble about my earlier visit to Mysore but was wondering if it is too late and that I may not remember much of stuff to be put into a reasonable blog.  However, things fell into place and my memories refreshed when I came to read today about the cursed royalty of Mysore kingdom (Courtesy - DC's today's supplement). Coincidentally, this day, exactly two years back, was my unforgettable trip to Mysore. So there is a reason for blogging, atleast not a too bad reason to not blog about it :P.

Wandering around the city for two days, I was totally impressed by the tranquility of the City of Palaces and its greenery while getting a glimpse into its beauty. Not to mention, drizzling turned the city a lot more dazzling. Hmmm.. if only this hot Chennai had more trees :(. Back to flashback.  During the visit, I heard from an acquaintance about the curse that the Mysore kings had succumbed to and the kingdom still giving in to it. Here it goes.. (part of this history excerpted from today's DC)...

Raja Wodeyar who ruled Mysore during the 16th Century conquered the fort of Srirangapatna from the then Viceroy of Vijayanagar - Tirumala. Shortly after Tirumala's death, Alamelamma, his wife had safeguarded a collection of magnificient jewellery with which she adorned the idol of Sri Ranganayaki, every Tuesday and Friday. When she was commanded to surrender the valuables to the king Raja Wodeyar, she not only denied but to escape from the king's rage, fell into the river Cauvery with the jewels, after uttering a curse that the Rajas of Mysore would never have their progeny until eternity.

Through my trip, I learnt, history has proven that the curse has turned out true. The successive rulers of Raja Wodeyar have all been adopted (excepting Narasaraja Wodeyar II). Much to my astonishment, I had heard that the adopted rulers have always had offsprings as they are not from the direct lines and then as the curse plays its role promptly, these offsprings would never have their heirs. The story iterates. That was the first time I came to know of a (hi)story on a curse (and that it turned out to be reality) and it made me marvel, how powerful words could be!! Or rather, is it just a coincidence?! I don't think so. Apparently, even the Royal Highness couldn't get away from a harsh curse.

As it would always happen, my mind did a quick Ctrl + F in my brain's memory unit to cross-check if I had cursed anyone, knowingly or unknowingly. And it turns out that, neither am I Alamelamma and I hope, nor would my curses come true, if at all there was any :P.  A serious and quite a lengthy writing on curses and enough on this subject. Other places we visited were the Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary, Nanjudeshwarar temple, Chamundi Hills and the most exotic Balmuri. We also visited yet another Shiva temple and sought the Lord's blessings. Also etched in my mind is the amazingly beautiful place we got to stay and the fun we had had while gulping all hot food out of hunger. I miss it, for sure :|

Moving on to one another memorable experience. The guide who accompanied us in the mysore palace showed us the 'infinite mirrors'. Interestingly, none of us identified that those were brilliant infinite-mirrors until the guide had actually mentioned it. All that we (including the boys in our group) had done was to stare at our own faces in the mirror and admire if we were looking good or bad or so tired or dull. Upon realising what we had all done in common, there was a hearty laugh amongst us :D. It seems nothing is as admirable as one's own face, we conversed. And that makes a laughable end to this post, I hope!

New Lessons Learnt

I was proven wrong with some of my conceptions recently. Let me explain. Because languages are one of my passions, my spirit had said, two things pertaining to languages are damn easy and strangely, my mind agreed to it. Woo-hoo, my heart and mind finally agreeing on a point! Most of my days end up with an irresolvable dispute between the two and that they both coming down for a reconciliation can be nominated as a wonder of the world! Forget their endless fights, for now. I hope to blog on them when I feel the time is right.

Number one. A thought that existed in my mind, not sure since when, is that language teaching is a cool thing. And to teach your own mother tongue to someone totally strange to it is not a daunting task, either. To merely perceive things when not putting them into practice, is easy, correct? And there came an opportunity to teach my mother tongue to a foreigner and I wanted to utilize it - not for money, I bet. Engrossed in setting up a teaching plan, I was enthralled at how difficult it is to teach someone a language, although the language has been blended so well with your life. I also got to know myself that each language is unique, beautiful and has its own toughness in learning. And at the end, I had to lose the opportunity, just because I was not a professional tutor. I am not regretting it, for it has got me a good learning, changing my perception. Some day if I were given a similar opportunity, I surely will opt for it again, but this time knowing that it requires patience and practice.

Number two. Whenever I watched subtitled audio/video or even movies, it never struck me that transcribing isn't easy. My recent experience proved me how difficult it is. Believe it or not, it takes hours to perfectly transcribe a simple audio/video of 5 minutes duration. Since then, the way I look at subtitling is reversed altogether.

The motive behind sharing these two experiences is just to reflect on how reality is different from imagination. Appearance can many times be deceptive, whether the insight is from your mind or heart otherwise sometimes from within both!

A definition to courageousness

She looks like one of the women-next-door types, but it is stunning to know her achievements. Having got a chance to listen to a motiviational and spellbounding speech by Mrs.Girija Raghavan, I felt privileged and very much inspired. What I knew of her earlier is that she is a television host generally for women-based programmes and I hardly remember her running a magazine targeted at women. The EDP session, however, revealed that this is just one amongst her many facets.

It was during my high schooling that I happened to watch her afternoon programme 'Pengal ulagam', if I remember the name correctly. Time never permitted me to fully watch it as I would be rushing to get ready to school. We had only half-day classes those months, thanks to the twelfth board exam arrangements in our campus. That was the time we had only a handful of private channels and her programmes used to be very simple, yet interesting. And this is how and what I came to know of this lady.

Back to the EDP, she was to give a speech to a heterogeneous group on successful entrepreneurship. And she spoke of herself, the challenges she had to overcome, failures and of course, hitting the peak of success mountain. A lady of total courageousness, who quitted a lucrative bank job to follow her passion founded 'Ladies Special' magazine which today has around 50,000 subscribers to its credit. She shared her first-hand good and bad experiences that she had had with her initial venture of releasing audio casettes. Even with big losses and repeated failures, she never moved away from her passion! And her secret to success is that she made mistakes but never repeated it! It is wonderful to hear that this lady has headed towards social service too. A successful entrepreneur, she leads and guides budding self-employed women, cares for them and for the society. Mindblowing!

To add more to my experience, it was delighting to shake firm hands with this interesting lady. She too was glad to know that I had become a fan of hers :). My respect for this woman increased in folds when she confessed that she has been a single woman for almost two decades! Her point was that if a struggling single woman can achieve this much, why can't the youngsters of today?! Point accepted. Youngsters today have much opportunities and nothing can obstruct if one has the guts to exercise dreams into reality! On the whole, a cherishable event. I hope to follow her footsteps.

The saddest part is that, while she finished her speech and before she prepared to leave, almost 75% of our educated audiences were busy moving out. See how much respect one demonstrates for a chief-guest in our nation. Terrible for the aspiring entrepreneurs to have behaved that way! A high-profiled woman, she didn't mind it, but the attitude of the attendees wasn't a good sign. I think it is high time we learned good behaviours and social gestures.