More sights from Mysore

First on the amazing Kukkarahalli Lake, near the Mysore University campus. We walked along the trail and were amazed to see the many bird species all around

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the many buildings from royal times. This one was a royal guest house of sorts

 

The hotel we stayed at, which probably was the home of someone from the nobility in the times of the king.

 



A visit to Lalbagh with the team at work

 

Mysore - The palaces

The Mysore Palace was built in 1912 by the Wodeyar king. I found it amazing that it was a combination of Hindu, Muslim, Rajput and Gothic styles.

Here are some views of the outside. The rooms inside were impressively decorated, photography was not allowed.

Our first view was of it light up at night.

 

 

We then went by the next afternoon to take a look at it in daylight.

 

 

 

 

 

 I found the lioness statues all over the place quite impressive.

 The other palace we went to was the Jaganmohan palace. While the building itself was not as impressive as the royal palace, the paintings it housed (it is now a government art gallery) were quite fantastic... definitely worth a visit.

 

 

A Tree Walk for kids at Nageswara Rao Park

From the Mylapore Times, April 9th 2013

When my friend invited me for a ‘Tree Walk’  at Nageswara Rao Park I agreed more for my daughter’s sake than my own. As we waited for the Walk to start, Vagesh, a class IV student of PSBB School, narrated a story to the kids. It was relaxing to sit under the shade of the Pipal tree and listen to this little boy talking animatedly.
When Babu of ‘Nizhal’ started explaining about the beautiful and statuesque trees near the Chess Square, I realised that the tree walk could be interesting to adults too. We started with the huge Pipal tree or ‘Arasa maram’ at the centre of the park. Babu gave the children many interesting facts about the huge trees surrounding the Chess Square like the Fish tail Palm tree, Copper pod tree, Java cassia tree and the Rain tree.

I was glad that we had such a well maintained park in our neighbourhood.  It is heartening to see that the once neglected park is now abuzz with activity, Sunday morning kutcheris, evening tree walks and storytelling. Inspite of the heat and humidity, it was indeed refreshing to be outdoors and watch the children engrossed in a tree walk, collecting different types of leaves, flowers and seeds.

Childrens Space, a library for kids under the age of 10, based in Alwarpet (http://www.childrensspacechennai.com), organised the tree walk in association with “Nizhal’, an NGO in the city (http://www.nizhaltn.org).  The library plans to hold such walks once a month so as to help children get more interested and involved with nature at an early age.

Sunday morning walk through Cubbon Park

Joggers running through the path of false ashokas

Berries from chennai - black nightshade (solanum americanum)

Not all berries are edible.. a bit of googling reveals that these berries might be best left alone on the plant.

Tamil New year at Chennai

This tamil new year we were at Chennai and on the spur of the moment one morning we took a walk to boat club road and kotturpuram. I thought it would be nice to head to the PWD park that Nizhal was helping build and maintain. We reached there after a good long walk through the shady roads of boat club, the hot and exposed kotturpuram bridge (past hoards of birds sitting along the weeds on the adyar river) and I was pleasantly surprised ot see all the changes - the entrance itself had been rebuilt and there were pathways laid inside, with lights to help late evening walkers. There was a volunteer from nizhal busily watering all the plants , with whom I struck up a conversation.

Coming home I looked back to my posts and realized it was a good two years since I had visiting the park.. the last was on a sunday evening around this time in 2011. How time flies.

Grandmothers garden update

While at Chennai in April I took a few pictures of my grandmothers garden.. she does not get out much these days and it has unfortunately become quite an effort for her to go downstairs and spend some time in the garden. I thought these pictures would help her see what was blooming and how things were, to supplement what she was hearing from those who passed by.