What was I doing in Mysore that I had enough free time to watch a movie in a Cinema Hall? I do not even remember the year – shit, I am old! – but my LSR Sociology Class had gone to Mysore to do fieldwork for our final grades. I think my chosen topic was something to do with religion because I have always been obsessed with the impact of religion in society.
Gunjan was my study partner; we’d chosen similar fields. We visited a lot of holy places. We took off our shoes plenty of times; I did not enjoy those because I hate going barefoot, especially in unfamiliar places. My partner in crime however was Mamu. So it was with Mamu I found myself paying something like 60 rupees to watch a Kannada movie that neither of us understood. On the big screen, no less.
Please do appreciate that I never would watch a Kannada movie (without subtitles no less) on any smaller screen variance. There is just something lovely about metaphorical larger than life characters that are displayed literally larger than life onscreen that just makes everything magical for me. I even sat through Gulliver’s Travels in 3D one time and while even today I find it pointless to watch a fat Jack Black get red and bumpy and peeing into the ocean as I did while I was watching it, I do not regret it. I mean I watched Love Story 2050 on the big screen at Batra. There’s no coming back from there. Not for me and not for Priyanka Chopra, I don’t think.
The funny thing is I do not remember anything about Snehana Prithina. But I do enjoy telling the story because it is one of the weirdest flex I have. Who else do you know who would sit through 2 and a half hours during a movie they do not understand on the Big Screen not only voluntarily but also would willingly pay for it? Not many people at all.
It’s not a good flex. It’s just one, is all I am saying.
I think we were in Mysore for two weeks.
I fell in love with Mysore Pak there. I can’t eat very much of it anymore but it is one of my top favourite Indian sweets, running a tight race with local rasgolla when in West Bengal (but not the tinned ones), chamchams, kalakand, gajar ka halwa and kaju barfi. That would be a funny race; I can see it being sponsored by diabetes. I also fell in love with “set dosa” which I think is how pancakes should taste like but fall short of. I ate it for breakfast every single day for the entire duration of our stay. I also fell in love with filter coffee; Urban Cafés will serve you fancier looking coffee but I think South India makes better coffee.
I did not fall in love with much else. It is very humid in Mysore. Also they make you take your shoes off in way too many places. I do not enjoy that.
I did visit Srirangapatna and climbed 600+ steps and that’s another flex. I also visited Ooty from there which was pretty and I had fun, but it rained so that was less fun. I also visited Brindavan Gardens and ordered a local charcoal BBQ fish but also nearly missed the local bus so Mamu and I ate the full flavoured, right-up aromatic BBQ fish wrapped in a leaf at the back of the last bus and felt appropriately shamed in what felt like a bus full of vegetarian locals. Mamu and I tended to do that. I remember on the college trip to Kasauli, we ate over-ripened Cheeku in the bus and it smelt like booze and everyone thought it was booze and there were whispered gossip in the bus over our indulgent driver and Mamu and I just silently let the poor man take the fall for our own secret fruit indulgence. Pardon, good sir.
In our defence, when our teacher said “Please pack enough snacks because there won’t be places to buy more”, we took it to mean for the entire trip. Which was extremely stupid because of bloody well course there would be shops in Kasauli. But she and I went to Amar Colony and bought juice, nuts, chips and fruits to take with us to Kasauli. We crammed our clothes in one bag and packed one bag full of snacks. When at the bus we discovered Bhavna Ma’am had meant snacks for the night because our night bus would not make pitstops, we felt so embarrassed we decided to eat the whole haul. Which was again stupid because there was a lot of snacks in the bag! And juice. And fruits. We reasoned at least we can eat the fruit. Hence.
It is a very weak defence I know but take it as “explanation” maybe. I only remember the Kasauli Trip for two things because of this. One, the very heavy snacks bag that we carried around stacked on top of our clothes bag, because the weight of the two bags was very uneven. We were joined at the hip because we carried the two bags together between the two of us because it was our shameful secret because nobody would have believed anyone would be that stupid to think Kasauli would not have anything to eat ever and they would laugh at us. Nobody really cared much because Mamu and I lived out of each other’s pockets at the time anyway. But we carried the bags and the secret together. And quietly brought all the Amar Colony snacks back with us again because weirdly enough, there was food in Kasauli. Two, the sweet corn is very expensive in Kasauli.
Mysore, though? Good food. I’d gone back in 2019 as part of my MCS training. I was a more experienced traveler at this point. And I visited a mall this time. I did not have set dosa. I did not drink filter coffee. I had Mysore Pak though because I was determined to; the bus nearly left without me because I was waiting for my Pak order.
Seems to me I don’t do well with Mysore buses.
Strange take-away. Life is very random. So is this blog.
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