Solo trip to Mysore - Day 1

From Where do I start telling you about my journey?

Should I start telling you about an unexpected welcome into the train?

Should I start telling you about competing with strangers for eating chapathi without any talk or deal?

Should I start telling you about the sleep I had after spending a day in the scorching sun?

Should I start telling you about an expected climax for a train?

Should I start telling you about all the places i had visited?

There is so much to tell you but I'm still lost in the wonderland of wodeyar palace, in the bus ride to chamundi hills, in the boat ride through Kaveri river and in the grandeur of palace at night and much more.

After working last night I decided to take my train to Mysore and take rest as it was a 3-4 hours journey from Bangalore to Mysore. After leaving from office a bit early I packed my bags and checked whether the train was on time or late and I was not surprised. It was 2 hours late than schedule and my plan was already delayed. I reached railway station to take the train which was about to leave and took a general ticket. I had to wait about an hour for the other train to arrive and my train was 30 minutes from then. As I didn't get the seat in the train which was ready to leave I decided to wait for my train as I had a reserved ticket to take rest.

The station was packed up like audience at india vs Pakistan match and it was like they all were waiting for the players to come on to pitch. There I was waiting for the train so that I could take some rest as my eyes were already shutting down like a drained battery laptop. After waiting for 10-15 minutes the train arrived and people rushed in from everywhere. I didn't care much and stood back as the halt was for 10 minutes and my seat was reserved. I got into the train after 5 minutes and to my surprise the train was packed from every side.

I lost my peace and hurriedly went towards my seat and found it was already occupied. I woke him up and took my seat, luckily it was the upper berth. The below berths were filled with 4-5 people even though it was reserved coach. As I had planned to visit at least 2 places today, so I tried to sleep but it was an unsuccessful attempt as it was too loud out there. I plugged in my ear phones and tried to take some rest but I couldn't get my self to sleep.

I kept my eyes closed and my ears covered with earphones but all went in vain as I couldn't sleep. So I had to satisfy myself by keeping my eyes close to give some rest to my eyes. The whole ride was noisy and sleepless and a guy or a child occupied my seat to sit and I didn't mind as I knew this ride would go sleepless. The train was getting occupied and occupied as it was getting delayed station after station.

At last at around 12:15 pm, I finally reached Mysore junction railway station. I got down the train and went my way out the gate and booked an ola auto to go to hotel mansion. As the auto guy didn't knew where it was had to navigate the way and after a round around the place located the mansion. I went into mansion and inquired about my booking. I got my room after giving my details and an ID proof. The mansion was an old big home built like 100 years ago and rearranged as an hostel/hotel dividing the building into parts accompanying shared rooms. It was so quiet and cool that I just wanted to take bath after that torturous train ride and dive deep into dreams and sleep.

I took bath and decided to go for lunch as they didn't provide any lunch there. I went out and walked to hotel RRR as I read reviews for its famous unique biryani. By the time I reached there it was packed like a pack of wild dogs digging into their pray and decided to go for an hotel nearby which was famous for its thali ( a plate with unlimited supply of chapathi, rice, curries with limited sweets and papad). I reached there and took a seat along with two strangers sitting opposite to me on the same table.

Without any order the server just brought three big plates and put them in front of us. He got 3-4 cups with curries, dal, a cup of curd, a cup of mango pulp, a jamun and a papad. Later he got chapathi and served 2 of them to all three of us. Then the competition began without any talk of a bet or a deal. We just went on eating and eating and eating. For sure if those guys were not accompanying me I wouldn't have ate those many chapathis. We continued to eat chapathi after chapathi as he served continuously one after other. It went on as we ate around 12-13 chapathis. I was shocked at my own capability to eat those many of them but i couldn't blame myself as I hadn't ate anything in the morning. I finished my lunch and left the place feeling alive to start my journey in Mysore.

Mysore zoo park: