I like my house. But I don't know if it could really be termed as "cool." It seemed like everywhere we looked in Mysore, it was one music video setting after another.
Our hotel, The Prince, was a nice business class hotel a few blocks away from "downtown" with a spacious marble lobby and a glass elevator. It was nice, though lacking a bit in personality. We were shocked one evening when Jeff called us into his room to watch a music video that featured the facade of the hotel as the setting for the big dance numbers.
But The Prince was nothing compared to the Raj. The biggest attraction in town is the Maharaja's Mysore Palace---home of the guy installed by the English to rule over the state of Karnataka in their stead. Designed by noted British architect Henry Irwin, the giant building was completed in 1912 after 15 years of construction. The time was spent building one of the most awe-inspiring residences on earth---a building that puts anything you've seen random video ho's lounging in to shame. The towers, turrets, and onion domes can be seen from anywhere in Mysore---and all approaches bring pedestrians through grand archways that breach the tall walls protecting the vast grounds and building complex. Temples litter the heavily planted yards and gardens. Larger-than-life stone leopards crouch ready to attack in a plaza. And the palace itself looms impressively with gorgeous pink and ochre walls and a roof topped with several golden domes. Inside, metal detectors are present to help prevent tourists from bringing cameras into the building---photography is strictly prohibited (but check some of the links at the bottom for photos elsewhere on the Web). The vast rooms are a display of opulence that borders on Elvis-ian decorative lunacy. Doors of solid silver. A "whispering" dome that is only eclipsed in size by one other on Earth (St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City). A golden elephant carriage. Another set of wooden doors inlaid with such an incredible amount of elegant ivory filigree that you had to look closely to see the wood.
That sort of mind-numbing opulence is shocking until you enter the royal wedding hall which is lined with a series of large-format oil paintings depicting the royal entourage at a festival in 1930. The paintings line a room much larger than my house, with images of cavalry brigades, elephants carrying the Raj, elephants carrying other notable Indians, elephants carrying other notable Brits, soldiers on camels, military bands, and an amazing cavalcade of Indians in traditional finery and English elite in colonial military garb. The parade was so huge that the paintings could not even be contained in the massive room, they continued out into a long hallway... So apparently, the house is nice---but the Raj really cut loose when he rolled.
Most amazing was a massive indoor/outdoor throneroom used by the Raj to address the people. Even closed in with chicken wire to keep pigeons out, the space is dramatic with stunning marble floors, ornately carved luxury boxes, incredibly detailed chandeliers, and a gigantic vista that left us gaping. No doubt this sort of demonstration of wealth and power was enough to cow most subjects.
The palace is now a museum filled with items from the various Wodeyar families (the maharajahs). Oddly, it lacks any sort of interpretive signs. Luckily, Jeff still speaks French, so we spent much of the time following a guide who was leading a pair of fat Parisians through the palace. The whole place is stuffed with a vast assortment of works of art and bric a brac---taxidermied heads, excellent handicrafts, assortments of gold and silver boxes that had been given to the Raj as gifts... But we found the paintings and photographs on display most engaging. They depicted the dashing, exotic, larger-than-life images and events that come to mind when we hear of the "Raj."We were surrounded by excesses beyond any Indiana Jones fantasy.
That blend of east and west that created the unimaginable gatherings and incredible opulence that were the thing of longing and legend in the first half of the 20th century.
At one point Jo-Elle and I stopped in our tracks in front of a painting of Maharajah Sri. Krishna Wodeyar IV. Our jaws dropped. The painting immediately struck us both as a strong argument for reincarnation---you see, we know old Sri Krishna...
He works at the zoo. We slowly faced each other and said in unison, "Alejandro."
Alejandro Grajal came to Brookfield from Argentina via Miami. He was born in Spain. But on this day, it was clear that his origins stretch further back to the nobility of Mysore. He is the spitting image of the Raj. This is not a passing similarity---aside from a slight upturn in the Raj's mustache, though separated by at least a half century, Alejandro and the Raj look exactly the same. And I think we can convince Mr. Grajal to fix that stache! (But more importantly, he needs to start wearing a turban.) Oddly, this was not the only time in the trip that we had this experience---we saw "the Indian version" of lots of people including my brother and Chris Carr.
We needed to decompress after the tour. So we walked the grounds and were treated to some very Indian sights. As we wandered the periphery, we were passed by a train of 10 wandering elephants; sauntered past a lonely guy playing his clarinet in snake charmer style (he seemed miffed that we did not tip him; but no snake and no talent...); and noticed a woman relieving herself amidst the plantings in a formal garden...
Things are rough in our neighborhood, but nobody craps in my prairie plants---so maybe its not so great having a giant kickass house...
(NOTE: I don't have many photos of this day. The image above is a monument to the Raj near one of the side entrances with the palace gate in the background. There's a bad shot of Jo-Elle and I in front of the palace on the Flickr page, but it doesn't really capture the grandeur of the place. So check out these links for more info and illustrative images:
Nice Flash intro with gorgeous images, explore a bit:
http://www.mysorepalace.org/main.htm
I don't know this guy...
http://community.webshots.com/album/63463232bfUbCG
The source of all Web knowledge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysore_Palace
washed-out interior shots:
http://www.mysoreonline.co.in/GALLERY.htm)
Coming Soon: All you can eat with your hands; 100 years wasn't enough time to finish these carvings?; that's the biggest uncircumcised one I have ever seen!
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