Mysore Dussera
The Nada Habba
Me an my husband have been living in Banaglore for many years now and have visited Mysore - its gorgeous palace, quaint city life, gardens and silk shops- many times. Suddenly this year we got a fancy -‘Heard a lot about Mysore Dussera. Why not enjoy Pooja holidays there?’. And off we went to ‘Mahishūru’ amidst the gapes of “You crazy to go to Mysore during Dussera???”.
We booked an AirBnb place in the calm Gokulam locality and a Royal Mysore Walks walking tour just a week before Dassera due to last minute planning.
The Walking tour
The Royal Mysore walk tour was a good start for our stay, pepped with interesting stories of Mysore, its connection and influence on world events, its pride, its defeat and glimpse of its history. These stories helped us better connect with the city. Many food joints introduced in the walk opened us up to options outside Trip Advisor. All this while meeting and chatting with other Royal Mysore walkers from across India and world!
Lights and lights everywhere
Palace, majestic old buildings, avenues and houses lit up for the Nada Habba. The festival was in the air. No one can escape feeling excited in such an ambience. This is the feel we miss in Bangalore during festivals.
The procession and hunt for tickets
The grand procession starts from palace grounds, proceeds all the way through City streets and ends in Bannimantapa. Other than from palace and Bannimantapa, procession can be viewed from streets as well. It is just that you will have to fight the crowd and sun.
I tried hard for the procuring tickets for the famed procession and torch light parade - the star attraction of the D-day from Bangalore. Online booking option is limited to Book My Show and it sold only 10 day Gold Pass of Rs.4000/person. Day specific tickets(with cost Rs.500/Rs.1000) were not available for mysterious reasons. We enquired with local residents but did not get much lead on how to get tickets. Finally while walking hither-thither for it, we were approached by ‘agents’ who apparently had the right tickets.
The ticket granted entry to a covered area of the palace. The entrance to palace was a big confusion. There is an outer entrance and inner entrance check posts. All police stationed were from outstation and were equally clueless in identifying enclosures(printed in ticket to identify designated area for ticket holder). After being redirected here and there multiple times, I finally gave up and declared -’I am not going anywhere and will enter from the gate I am in right now’ - and police gave in. This was the experience of many people in our enclosure. It did not matter what passes we had, we finally sat where we can grab seats without much hoopla. We were entitled to a better view but the fight to get in was so high and hence we gave in.
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All in all it is a one time experience nothing wow. From our seating area, view was far and had to climb on chairs to watch it.
The Cultural festivals
The Habba also host 10 days cultural fetsivals ranging from dance, drama, clasical vocals/instrument plays from accomplished artistes from all over India. These programs end on Navami(9th day) and is hosted in various venues. We missed at it as we arrived late on Navami
The Ahara mela(Food gala)
The food festival goes for 10 days and it was in Lalit Mahal Palace grounds. Ground had avast area with 30+ stalls, country music and reasonable crowd. Stalls had good quality food with wide range of options from Coorg, Managalore, Darwad, Triabal areas of Karnataka. Yummy Sannas with Chicken Curry, Bamboo cooked Biryani, Bun Butter Gulkand, Pedas were eye openers for us. Average price per counter for main course meal will be from Rs.120- Rs200 well worth it. All the yumminess still remains in our memory.
The exhibition
Not so enchanted. I expected a lot of traditional and handmade artifacts here but it was more like a giant supermarket with home utility and jewellery goods. There was nothing authentic about it and was more an essential buy. But they do have giant wheels, merry go round and other small rides in there for entertainment.
The surprise food place!
For breakfast on our last day, we looked up trip advisor and saw awesome reviews for The original Mylari restaurant. Our curiosity was heightened by the fact that, on our walks through the city we spotted many hotels named Mylari . We landed in a very small hotel, quite centrally located early in the morning. There was a small queue in the beginning and it kept growing with time. The place was cramped. We had second thoughts but decided to stay put. The wait was well worth it. It was an awesome masala dosa or interpretation of masalas dosa. It is so unlike typical south indian dosa. 1). Dosa is more like appam -feather soft 2). Stuffing is not aloo but the sago (Apparently this sago is the speciality of the place). It is served with butter and coconut chutney as accompliants. Taste was so heavenly, we enjoyed every bite of it!
Shopping
Art and HandiCrafts — Kaveri Emporium in Mysore is quite large as it is costly. It has good collection of art and handicraft, silk and other gift items ranging from sandal wood to furniture to perfume to pooja items. It is costly but you may get some interesting picks in reasonable price. Worth a check for non Banaglorean tourists.
Silks
Mysore silks Emporium is an expensive option but will get sarees in good designs.
Silk factory in Manathavadi road is very expensive. They have only traditional and single styled designs in various colors(pretty colors though).
Mysore Pak
Guru — Run by the descendents of Royal chefs. This place is small, mismanaged and requires you to stand in a long line. But we liked the sweets here better than Sree Mahalakshmi Sweets and other Trip advisor starred ones. They serve a semi solid variety, which gives it the distinct Mysore Pak taste vs Besan ladoo type taste.
Sree Mahalakshmi — People who are familiar with Besan ka ladoo may like this taste better. I found many of my friends and relatives liking this better
All in all ‘Mysore Habba tumba chennagide’
