Mysore, A City Of Tree Lovers

Living conditions have deteriorated badly in most cities in India. Air and noise pollution levels have risen tremendously, as has the volume of traffic. Simultaneously these cities have also become extremely pedestrian unfriendly. In this respect some of the cities that come to mind are Chennai, where I live, and Bangalore, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Coimbatore, and Hyderabad, all cities that I am very familiar with. And, I understand from my friends who are as familiar with other cities in India as I am with these, that it is the same sad story with most cities in India.

Mysore is however one city that seems to have retained its charm. I have been visiting it, though not frequently, over the last fifty plus years. Of course it too has grown and changed during this time, but unlike other cities it has not yet become an unbearably noisy and  crowded concrete jungle. Though traffic has increased, many parts of the city are still very walkable, and the pollution level is definitely very much lower than that of other cities. And, although many old buildings have been replaced by bland new ones, this city still retains many fine old garden houses that give Mysore its special character. My wife Nithi and I therefore were very happy  to spend a lot of time wandering around on foot. 

The people of Mysore seem to hold parks and plant life in special regard. There were several parks close to the hotel where we were staying. One of these parks had a very interesting gateway. On the last day of our stay I decided to go and photograph it so that I could sketch it later. I then noticed several groups of people gathered together within the park, performing rituals near various plants and trees. I continued walking past this particular park and everywhere that I went, in all the parks in  that area, there were people of all ages coming in to pay their respects to the trees and plants. I had not seen this happen before in any of the other cities. Maybe this is something unique to the people of Mysore and that perhaps explains why Mysore alone, among all Indian cities, is bucking the trend and preserving some of its charm.

A Well Spent Sunday

 Sundays are meant for making very optimistic, extravagant plans and then lying in and lazing the day away. At least that is my routine more often than not. However this Sunday was very different.

To start with I attended a class over the internet (a webinar) that started late Saturday night and ended at 3 am on Sunday. And, after a few hours of sleep we went on a long planned family sketchcrawl. My wife and daughter are very fond of sketching and painting, and this interest is also shared by quite a few in our extended family. We have driven out of Chennai on a few weekend  sketching trips in the past but this was the first time that we were doing this within the city. And this time my niece was also with us.

We had a fun time on Saturday deciding where to go and finally settled on the Marundeeswarar Koil at Thiruvanmiyur, a very old and famous temple very close to our house.We decided to spend around an hour at this venue and then drive down to a cafe for some much needed refreshments and a different type of sketching opportunity.

One of the problems with South Indian temples is that we cannot wear any footwear inside the temple precincts. The paving is usually in granite and this can sometimes be blistering hot. The four of us broke up and quickly went in search of something sketchworthy, and more importantly a convenient location to do the sketching from.

I ended up locating something that would not have been my first choice as a subject, but it had the advantage of a really quiet and shaded spot from which I could view it. In fact this spot was so secluded that many people went by without even realising that I was sitting there under some heavy foliage. 

My niece Ranjani plonked herself right along the main walkway and was soon immersed in her sketching quite oblivious to the passersby who paused and  gathered behind her to watch her at work. You can see Ranjani's sketch here.

My daughter Kalpana found a place with shade and a backrest too. It was also a spot that was rather difficult to approach and certainly not convenient for anyone to peer over her shoulder. I am sure that this must have been high on her criteria for a suitable sketching spot. Kalpana's sketch can be seen here. 

Nithi, my wife, was not to be seen anywhere. But she is a restless soul and we were sure that she would have finished several sketches in the time that the rest of us take to do even one, and that proved to be the case.

After we were done at Marundeeswarar Koil we drove a few miles South from the temple to a small but nice cafe called Tryst on the East coast Road. Unfortunately the view from our table did not offer any great sketching opportunities. But we did have a nice time there comparing sketches and having some nice stuff to eat and drink. Between gulps I managed to do this quick sketch of Nithi.

 I am adding this bit on Friday 9th Dec, a couple of  days after I had posted my sketches and photos. I finally managed to get Nithi's consent to put up her sketches too. One of her sketches is of a mandapam (shelter)  facing the Amman (lady deity) shrine. Her second sketch is of two fruitsellers engaged in conversation. Nithi does these in no time at all and then moves on to other things that catch her attention.

Near The Mysore Palace

As we were walking from Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery towards The Mysore Palace my wife and I noticed that there were very few new buildings along the route that we took. Most of the buildings built in the style to resonate with the Mysore Palace had been retained, though they were not well preserved. One of the buildings that we walked past housed a mutt. A mutt or math is a Hindu monastic religious establishment. The sketch that you see here is of this building.

 Most of the buildings however appeared to have been let out for commercial use. Nithi made the observation that one could see a marked difference in the way buildings occupied by a single entity were much better than those rented out to multiple owners. She was right. the buildings with multiple shops were certainly run down and the common spaces and gardens around them were all shockingly unkempt. Moreover the signages were all put up any which way as each shop owner tried to outdo the others.

In contrast, the buildings occupied by larger organisations looked reasonably well cared for and the gardens surrounding them looked tended. Of course, when the time comes to get a tenant to vacate, it is perhaps easier to persuade a smaller tenant to move. But then, there would be so many of them to deal with. So I guess it cuts both ways.

One of the buildings that we passed by was occupied by a national telecom comany. I found the building attractive and this is a sketch of the cupolas over it.

Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery, Mysore

Recently my wife Nithi and I went on a brief sketching holiday to Mysore, one of the cleanest cities in India. The weather was extremely kind and it was very pleasant to be outside. We had made up our mind not to do the normal tourist circuit and instead confine ourselves to walking around the shady streets, taking in the streetscape, and streetside activities.

Jaganmohan Palace

 However, we were tempted to travel a bit from where we were staying to visit the Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery since we had heard that this gallery had a collection of prized paintings and artefacts that was worth seeing. The art gallery is located in the Jaganmohan Palace which was built in 1861 when the original Mysore Palace was gutted in a fire.The royal Wodeyar family used the Jaganmohan Palace as their home from 1861 to 1912 when the construction of the present Mysore Palace was completed.

 

Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery

 

A visit to the Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery is a must for anyone who wishes to learn how not to run a gallery. First of all, the building does not lend itself easily to this usage. The display is spread over three levels (floors) and even on each floor there are level variations where vistors have to negotiate several steps. And, there are no elevators or ramps to negotiate any of these level differences.

The paintings and artefacts are not displayed to advantage. They are badly positioned with no consideration given to the appropriate distance from which paintings of different sizes should be viewed, and the heights at which they should be hung to be viewer friendly. The lighting is absolutely terrible and is in fact by itself a great source of irritation and an impediment to the viewing of the paintings.

Worst of all is the condition of the paintings themselves. Many of the paintings appear to be torn and damaged. Some restoration work appears to have been attempted on a few of the paintings, but this has been done very incompetently. Mysore is a place which receives a lot of rainfall and yet there is no protection for the paintings and art objects in this gallery from dust and humidity.

That morning we had set out from our hotel very eagerly expecting a treat and instead we came away from the gallery feeling very depressed and angry with the gross neglect and inefficency of whoever was in charge of this place.

A Pit Stop Gone Wrong

I was watching the start of this year's Singapore Grand Prix (Formula 1 car racing) when I remembered an unusual incident that took place in this race a few years ago. Although Singapore had been part of the international racing circuit from 1961 onwards, it dropped out in 1973. Formula 1 racing returned only in 2008 as the 15th race of the year.

The resumption was spectacular. The 2008 Singapore  Grand Prix was the first night time Formula 1 race ever, that too on a street circuit, and it made for fantastic viewing. The race was won by Fernando Alonso but it was tainted by an incident that came to be known as "Crashgate". Nelson Piquet, the Renault team's second driver alleged a year later that he had been ordered by his team boss to deliberately crash into the barriers during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to bring the safety car out to give his teammate Alonso an advantage.

Incidentally the Singapore Grand Prix holds the dubious distinction of having had to bring out a safety car every single year. This year too Schumacher's spectacular crash has ensured that the safety car was indeed brought out.

The unusual incident that I referred to was Filipe Massa's pitstop during the 2008 race. The crew gave Massa the all clear prematurely and he took off along with part of the rig still attached to his car!!! When he realised what had happened he had to continue driving up to the end of the pit lane and wait there for his crew to come running up where they had to struggle quite a bit to release it. To add insult to injury Massa was slapped with a drive through penalty for unsafe release from the pits.

Filipe Massa had been leading the race when he initially pitted; he eventually finished 13th.

Hotel du Parc, Puducherry (formerly known as Pondicherry)

I enjoy sketching and painting. Generally I use reference pictures and I am quite willing to spend a lot of time over each drawing. But over the last few years I have begun to enjoy sketching on location. However this calls for a different approach. Speed is important, and capturing the essential forms, proportions, perspective, and mood are more important than details.

Although I would love to sketch on location more often, so far I have been able to do this only when I am on a holiday. One such occasion was on a family holiday to Puducherry last year. Puducherry means "new settlement" and this is how this settlement was known before the French occupied it for over two and a half centuries. During this period it was called Pondicherry and much of the French influence is strongly present in Puducherry even now.

On our holiday we stayed at Hotel du Parc. This is a small heritage hotel which is very conveniently located in the French Quarter of the town close to the beach, the park, the ashram, and the museum. It is housed in a restored portion of Villa Aroume which was built in early 17th century and served as the residence of several French Governors including Dupleix.

My first sketch was done sitting at the doorstep of our room looking across the courtyard at the entrance to the room occupied by the other members of our holiday group. I was able to sit in the shade (which is an important consideration in India). And, since this was within the hotel and not in anyone's way, I was left undisturbed for the entire duration of my sketching.

For the second sketch I sat in the courtyard looking out towards the entrance gate. This time I was a bit more exposed, in every sense. I was in the direct path of a lot of the hotel residents and staff, and several of them stopped to look over my shoulder and chat with me. One of them even offered to stand over me with an umbrella and provide me shade.

While I was busy sketching a young man walked up and very apologetically introduced himself as the architect who had helped convert the old building into a hotel. He happened to be visiting the place.

The Paris Observatory, Meudon, France

My sketch shows the Paris Observatory, located at Meudon on the outskirts of Paris. This is the last sketch in my Tour de France 2010 series. LIke each of the previous 20 sketches in this series, this one too is 12 cm x 9.5 cm (approx. 4.75" x 3.75").

The observatory was built in the 17th century under King Louis XIV, and was extended several times in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The most recent additions were made in 1951.
The world's first national almanac was published by the Paris Observatory in the 17th century, and in the mid-19th century the observatory published the first weather maps. In 1913 the Paris Observatory collaborated with the US Naval Observatory to establish the exact longitudinal difference between the two observatories. This was done by exchanging radio signals, with the Paris Observatory using the Eiffel Tower as an antenna.

The 2010 Tour de France concluded on 25th July 2010, 23 days after the cyclists started from Rotterdam. In all there were 21 days of racing and 2 rest days. Since 1975 the race has finished in Paris at the Champs Elysees. The route into Paris varies every year, but it now concludes with 8 laps of the Champs Elysees. In the past this used to be 10 laps. 

Traditionally the winner of the overall classification (yellow jersey) is settled before this last stage. The wearer of the yellow jersey at the start of the final stage therefore has the luxury of savouring the ride into Paris and has only to ensure that he does not meet with any mishap on the way. But there have been a couple of exceptions to this.

In 1979 Joop Zoetemelk attacked Bernard Hinault on the last stage, hoping to win enough time to claim the victory. But Hinault chased Zoetemelk down, and beat him for the stage victory and the overall prize.

In 1989 Laurent Fignon led Greg LeMond by 50 seconds coming into the final stage of the Tour. But that stage was a time trial and therefore, without violating any tradition, LeMond was able to overcome the deficit and win by 8 seconds. (Just imagine...at the end of around 3300 kms of racing only 8 seconds separated the first two riders that year!!!)

This tradition of not attacking the wearer of the yellow jersey does not extend to the other classifications and on several occasions these have been settled on the last day in thrilling fashion.

The final stage starts with the race leader's team serving champagne, and there is a lot of joking and relaxed riding. But as the riders approach Paris the pace quickens, and around Champs Elysees the racing is really very intense for the stage victory and to settle the various classifications other than the yellow jersey.

The final stage of the 2010 Tour de France was won by Mark Cavendish, who became the first winner of consecutive Champs-Élysées stages. The Isle of Man sprinter won five stages in the 2010 Tour, more than any other rider, taking his career tally to 15 stage wins. and this year (i.e. in the 2011 Tour) he once again won 5 stages including the final (Champs Elysees) stage. He certainly deserves his nickname "the Manx Missile".

For Contador this was his third Tour de France victory, and the second time in a row that Andy Schleck had to finish a step lower than Contador on the winners' podium. Alessandro Petacchi won the sprinters classification (green jersey), Anthony Charteau won the king of the mountains classification (polka dot jersey), Andy Schleck won the best young rider classification (white jersey), and  Team RadioShack won the team competition.

To all of you who have been with me on my virtual journey...... thank you for your patience and encouragement.