Srirangapatna

It’s been around one month since we went out of the campus. We were very busy preparing for our exams. Now everything has got over and we had to refresh ourselves. We were discussing on the plan for that week end.. We had visited Mysore Palace, Zoo, Jaganmohan Palace and the Brindhavan Gardens. What was left around Mysore where we haven't gone? We went on for a search in the Google Maps and found Tipu’s Fort in Srirangapatna. We found some pictures and they were interesting. We decided to be there that week end.
Srirangapatna is a village of historic, religious, and cultural situated in hub of Karnataka, just about 13 kms from Mysore. The entire town is an island enclosed by River Cauveri. This history-rich town was the capital of the Warrior-Kings Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan - The Tiger of Mysore. We started late, took a bus and reached around 2.00 pm. When the bus went over a bridge across the river Cauveri, we had the feeling of entering a ruined ancient village. The fort walls that had fallen over the ages took us back to the dates of Tipu. When I saw those fort walls I got reminded of the Hollywood movie “Troy”. We got down from the bus and walked a little distance. We found a board marked Lal Mahal Palace.

Tipu Sultan Palace

Tipu Sultan Palace

We didn't find anything there but a lawn and some remains. It didn't look much like a palace. We took some snaps outside the so called palace. We were not so impressed by that.
Then we had a look at the Ranganathaswamy Temple. The temple is one of the most important Vaishnavite shrines in South India. Then we went to the river banks and then walked to the Colonel Bailey’s Dungeon. I forgot to mention about the water gate. It was really great to see a drainage system built by the ancient kings. We have never heard or read about that in any reviews of the place. The water gate has a board marked as an ancient building and it is taken care by the government but we were shocked to see people living there. They made that building their home.

Colonel Bailey’s Dungeon

Then we went to the Colonel Bailey’s Dungeon. It was named after Colonel Bailey who discovered this dungeon. This dungeon was used to imprison Maratha invaders, and other prisoners of Tipu Sultan. The dungeon measures 30.5 metres width 12.2 metres height and is built of brick and mortar. We walked to the top of the fort to get a view of the bridge built by Colonel Wellesley. We saw the crocodile pit and the huge walls built by them. The dungeon was really interesting. We took some good snaps there and then started walking. There were a lot of old buildings and temples left unnoticed by the tourists and the Government.
We then went to Tipu’s burial place. There was a stone laid in his remembrance. Then we walked to the Jamia Masjid and from there we took an auto to the Daria Daulat Bagh - the summer palace of Tipu. Built in 1784, this Summer Palace was one of the Tipu's favourite retreats. It stands on a raised platform at a height of 1.5 metres. The Bagh has treasured the paintings, engravings, arms that depict the valiant victories and struggles of Tipu Sultan. The coins, medals, weapons, canons and the pencil drawings are some of the noteworthy things found there. Another interesting thing exhibited there was the model of the island. It would have been really a difficult task to build such a model those days.
Then we left for the Sangam, the place where the rivers meet each other. This is the place where the Hindus perform their ritual rights. We were interested in the “parisal” ride. But we didn't because of its cost. Then from there we went to the Gumbaz, Mausoleum of Tippu Sultan, his father Hyder Ali and his mother. That was built by Tippu Sultan. The Gumbaz stands on a high and wide platform with an open veranda with polished pillars all round. The lawn in front of the Gumbaz looked like a dust bin fully covered with garbage. Although the Gumbaz had a royal majestic look, the surroundings were so disgusting because of the lack of proper maintenance. We just took a look at everything and started back to Infosys campus.

Mysore Palace

It was the 21st of February; we planned to go to the Mysore Palace for the weekend. We entered the palace at about 12.00pm. We were very much disappointed on knowing that camera was not allowed inside the palace. The palace was built in 1912 in the Indian serene style to replace the old palace which was burnt down by fire. Some of the noteworthy places inside the palace are the Ambavilasa or Diwan-e-Khas, the Kalayana Manatapa, the Public Darbar Hall and the Gusti Hall. The Public Darbar Hall looked closely similar to the Durbar in the movie 'Jodha Akbar'. It is said that the palace has 12 temples within it. But we were able to spot out only 2 of them. One of the things which attracted us in the palace was the AC lift. It looked so familiar since those kinds of elevators are common in Hollywood movies. We thought we could spend the whole afternoon inside the palace. But we just took a look of the palace and left in less than 3 hours.
Then we had our lunch and went to the Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens or the Mysore zoo. We were happy that cameras were allowed inside the zoo. The zoo was established under Royal Patronage in 1892, making it one of the oldest zoos in the world, and since then millions of people have enjoyed its wonderful animals and spectacular grounds. Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens or Mysore zoo is one of the biggest of its kind in the country. We had to walk around 2.75 kms inside the zoo to completely go around the zoo. The main attraction of the zoo was the white tigers and the gorillas. We took pics of us giving all possible poses like animals. I stood near a monkey statue and gave a pose like it. As we walked a lot in that sunny afternoon, we were thirsting and we didn't have water can. We couldn't find any water pipes nearby. We were very badly in need of water to kill our thirst and that is when we came across a sugarcane juice shop. We had cane juice and took a bit rest there and we started again. We came to the birds section. The birds were really attracting. The swans were very beautiful. Then we found some hoardings which stood as an evidence for the sponsorship by the "Infosys employees". We stood near them and took pics as if we were those employees. This zoo will be liked by children a lot. We had a good trip and then started back to our campus.

Mysore Zoo - Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Garden

Check out the year

Tiger

Take your right

Monkey

Do not feed

Chimpanzee

Rhino

Deers

Elephants

A painting

Cheetah

King of the Jungle

I liked this a lot

Goose

Duck

Mysore Zoo Dustbin

Giraffe

Thank You

Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens

JaganMohan Palace

I'm staying in Infosys at Mysore for a project. I, along with my friends, planned to go around the city on 14-02-2010. All of us are new to Mysore. We started by around 11am. We got into a bus and reached CBS (Central Bus Stand). We asked some people for a shop with electronic goods. We were said that Devaraj Street contains all kinds of shops. We got directions from many passersby and finally reached Devaraj Street. Unexpectedly we didn't find any shop with electronic items. We searched lot of shops for an mp3 player but couldn't find one. Then we decided to go to Mysore palace. The palace was quite visible from the bus stand. So we walked from there and reached the palace and found that we were in the back gate of the palace. We were asked to go through the front gate. We decided to take a ride to the front gate in a horse-driven cart. When we reached the front gate we found a big crowd there. They were waiting in a queue to enter the palace. We decided to go to the Mysore palace the next week end. We went for shopping in the nearby shops. Then we decided to go to the JaganMohan palace.

So we looked for a horse cart to go to the palace. We found one. And while going to the palace the driver of that cart said that JeganMohan palace was not worth to see. We reached the front gate and entered the palace paying Rs.20 each as the entry fee. Camera was not allowed inside the palace. The palace was full of paintings and ancients artifacts used by the kings of Mysore. There was an art museum in the palace. I bought a printout of an artwork as a remembrance of that place. We were inside the palace for around one hour. It would be a good place for art lovers. We understood that the palace was not a place to visit for youngsters like us.