Mysore big Clock tower

The big clock tower known as the "Doda Gadyara" is much bigger than the small clock tower. It is situated in front of the Rangacharlu Memorial hall.

The clock tower is surrounded by a enclosure and is a circle for the vehicular traffic.Unlike the smaller clock tower the dodgadayara has Kannada numerals in place of the roman numerals shown in the chika gadyara.

The red color for the bottom and stony color for the rest gives the clock a vintage look befitting a clock tower.

RIMSE-Ramakrishna Institute of Moral and Spiritual Education

Ramakrishna Institute of Moral and Spiritual Education(RIMSE) is run by Ramakrishna ashram, Mysore. It was established in the year 1974.

It functions mainly as a B Ed degree college. The picture here shows the main shrine where prayers take place regularly.

RIMSE also has a cellar where special sessions of meditation and prayer are conducted. The significance of the prayer halls is that, not just one religion but all religions are represented.

The ideal of equality and brotherhood among religions is propagated by RIMSE. In this regard
retreats for diverse groups of people are conducted.

Character development camps are held for tenth and plus two students as well.For a more details visit the site of RIMSE.

Rangacharlu memorial hall

The town hall was constructed in 1884 in memory of late Chettipantam Veeravalli Rangacharlu, who served as the first dewan of mysore state.

The city improvement trust board and the city municipal offices were earlier housed in the rangacharlu hall. The architecture of the building has two distinct features, the pediment with an intricately carved figurine of goddess laxmi with elephants on both sides and the four pairs of Corinthian columns.

The Rangacharlu memorial hall is now the town hall of mysore and is used for various cultural activities.

Mysore small clock tower

The small clock tower known as the "chik gadyara" meaning small clock was constructed during the rule of Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.

The clock tower was constructed in the honour of Lord Dufferin, the British Viceroy of India. Lord Dufferin was the viceroy of India from 1884 to 1888. The Indian National Congress was founded during his term in 1885.

Being one of the best diplomats of his times, he was able to appease both the conservative anglo-indians and the nationalists during his term as the Viceroy.

The clock tower is still operational and displays the correct time. Located in front of the entrance to Devraja market, it is situated in Sivrampet.

The clock tower was also renovated when the Devraja market was renovated following collapse of certain sections of the market.

Twisted tree at crawford hall

The university of mysore crawford hall where the degrees are awarded. It is the convocation hall.

Lord Saraswati presides over the hall at the top. Playing on the veena.

The twisted tree in the grounds can be seen below. It is more of a bent tree than a twisted tree. It reminds one of the womping willow from the harry Potter book series.

For those of you who are unaware of the Whomping Willow, its a tree that has been magically charmed to prevent people from entering the hole at the base of the tree.

The tree hole is the entrance to the shrieking shack. The tree can attack anybody trying to enter the hole by swinging its branches.

Although this tree does not seem to have either a hole nor does it attack anybody as such. But it is the closest thing that could be found to resemble the womping willow.

Tippu Sultan airport?

The new international airport which is under construction at Devanahalli is a hot topic of debate. Various appeals are being made to name the new airport after the tiger of Mysore, tippu sultan. The main reasons being that Devanahalli is the place where Tippu sultan was born. The area where the new airport is coming up was supposedly the property of Tippu Sultan.

As mysore becomes mysuru, the name becomes more important. The express train between Mysore and Bnaglore has been named after Tippu Sultan and is very popular as the tippu express. A letter campaign has been started to put forward the issue.

It is yet to be seen how the government responds to the request of naming the Mysore airport after Tippu Sultan. The other obvious alternatives are to name it after the Mysore maharjas, the wodyars or the great engineer Vishveshwaria. The Mysuru airport may be operational in the months or years to come. So we have ample amount of time to decide upon a name.

Brindavan Gardens-the charm still persists

One of the prime attraction of mysore or mysooru is Brindavan Gardens or simply KRS. The distinction being Brindavan gardens uses the water from the KRS reservoir to supply water to the various fountains.

Although it is ok to visit it in the morning, to watch the musical fountain in action, one has to go during the evening. This picture shows one of the smaller fountains at Brindavan gardens.

Brindavan gardens can be reached by road. Now they have closed the older opening that began at the Dam ad made a huge parking lot to cater to the huge hoards of people that are visiting KRS. Even after so many years, still the charm of Brindavan gardens seems to persist.

Kukaralli lake-garbage bib overflow

The garbage bin is overflowing on the lake bank. The garbage has collected outside the garbage bin.


It would be better if the garbage clearance rate is increased. The construction of the bin the overhead roofing, seems rather peculiar and may also be the reason for the accumulation of garbage outside the garbage bin.


The Kuralli lake which is home to many species of birds needs to be preserved and maintained clean. It is these few open spaces in the city that will provide clean air for generations to come.

Temple reassembled near KRS Dam

The temple that had been submerged in the Krishna Raja Sagara Reservoir has been reassembled on the shore. The parts of the temple were numbered and photographed before being removed part by part. Using heavy machinery these parts were moved to the shore when the reservoir was empty.

The stone was cleaned and polished before assembling it into the temple. However, many new parts had to be added to replace the won out pieces. It was like putting back the pieces of a jig-saw puzzle.

The temple is now nearly complete. The temple can be reached by passing through the village. The temple has been reconstructed on a peninsula. The god or goddess is yet to be placed within the temple.

Kaveri in full flow at KRS

The river caveri is flowing at full blow. The dam has filled up and the water has been let out. The increasing accumulation of the silt in the dam has decreased its capacity. The sand brought to the dam by the river is trapped by the dam and fills up the dam.
The dam is known as KRS dam.Krishna Raja Sagar dam was built by Vishwevshvarai when he was the dewan of mysore. The dam has stood the rigors of time till now.

Gopalaswamy betta at noon

We talked about Goplaswamy betta earlier. See the immense amount of fog covering the mountain at noon. The visibility does not get any better than that.
The temple has a krishna playing on the flute. The temple which is supposed to be 700 years old was built during the rule of the chola dynasty. The region has 25 tirtas known as chakra titrta. And the specialty of the place is that it does not have any crows. The locals have some religious reasoning for the same. I wonder if it has anything to do with the furious winds and fog.

And by the way the temple does not open until 11 am. Make sure you take a vehicle that can climb the steep roads. The entrance to the road is controlled as the area is preserved under the project tiger initiative. But anybody can visit the temple as long as they don't wander of into the forest.

Traditional art at jagan mohana palace

This piece of art can be seen outside the Jagan Mohana palace in mysore. The new mysoru that is coming has a lot of art to offer to the world.

The statue of goddess Saraswati playing the Veena is depicted in this statue. The goddess is the goddess of education and learning.

The Lansdowne market

The Lansdowne market is a landmark structure. It is one of the reasons for the popularity of the mysore market. It was under some controversy, with different people being blamed for the situation. The building which is situated exactly opposite to the city bus stand houses a large number of shops.

The pathetic situation of the side wall with movie posters all over it is indeed a disgrace. Forget about the posters, grass is growing on the first floor balcony, as can be seen in this picture. It is high time we had a regular inspection and maintenance schedule for all these buildings.

The "lansdowne" building has become "Lands down" by repeated colloquial use. It is similar to the five light circle becoming pilot circle!

Mysore City corporation-MCC

The Mysore city corporation reflects the architecture of the palace. The Mysore city corporation is situated opposite to the Amba vilas palace beside the Banumai High school.
This is the place you goto if you need a trade license, birth certificate,death certificate, house tax, approval of house plan before construction etc.. The assembly of the members of the corporation also takes place at the mysore city corporation.

For paying the money at the corporation you have to pay the money at the bank counter in room number 6. It opens at 11.00 hrs. Apart from that it is rather easy to get the work done with a liberal valet. The latest initiative of the corporation is harvesting. It will help overcome the water scarcity problem of the state.

Jagan Mohan palace mysore

The Jagan mohan palace was built as the construction of the main palace was not yet complete after the old palace burnt down.
After independence the government took over the maintenance of the palace. The palace is used as a art gallery and auditorium. Photography is strictly prohibited within the art gallery, but it has paintings from diferent periods from the history of mysore.

It is being preserved as a heritage building.It was built in 1861 by Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, the building is predominantly Hindu style. The building is maintained by the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) in its "Maintain cleanliness, preserve Heritage" initiative.


The huge pavilion at the front (seen in the photograph)has been used for holding meetings of the representative assembly and convocations of university of Mysore. The installation of Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV took place in this pavilion in 1902, attended by Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy and governor general of India. The Royal family lived in this palace till the construction of the new Amba Vilas mysore palace in 1912.

Source-http://arjun53ster.googlepages.com/jagan_mohan_palace_notice.JPG

Paying MESCOM bill made easy

The MESCOM bill can be paid easily by the new ATP machine. The bills can be paid either with cash or with a check. The machine will make the process easy. The bills can also be paid at any time.


The method to pay the bill can be read in the picture below. You can take a look at an enlarged view of it by clicking on the image.

As the process becomes automated, some problems are being encountered.The main problem is that the ATP is not able to suck in the money easily. The currency notes have to be new and crisp. If the notes are old and folded it does not accept such notes.

Road construction continues

As the construction of the road continues, the vehicles are put into many problems. This lorry is trapped in a patch of mud after rains. And the interest of the people is trapped in it too. As the road construction work continues heavy machinery is at work..

Overbridge construction mysore

A underpass linking jayanagar with vidyaranipuram is under construction. The pass that allows vehicles to cross the railway line will bring down the travel distance by 4Km. The other underpass which is nearby has a road in very narrow, so this will provide a easier and shorter route.

The bridge extends the road on which ISKON is located to join it to NIE college. This road when complete will be useful to engineering students (NIE), movie goers going to Sterling etc..just to mention a few.

As mysore continues to grow to Mysooru, such changes become frequent.

Mysore Hunsur road under construction

The Hunsur road is under construction..The road is supposed to be 4 lane when it is completely built. The picture shows the present state of the road under construction. This is stretch near hootagally.

Mysore-home of incense

Mysore is a land of million aromas. The aroma of incense sticks or agarbathi's is one that has both religious as well as asthetic appeal. Apart from the incense sticks many variants such as doopa's etc.. are also made in Mysore.

The cycle brand agarbathi is a pioneer in incense sticks. Owned by
N RANGA RAO & SONS it is involved in manufacture of incense sticks not only for india but also abroad. It is situated in Mysore with branch offices in various cities. The fact that Mysore is still the leader in the manufacture of incense sticks is proven beyond doubt by this very fact.

The hand rolled, incense sticks, provide employment to numerous people as it is a labor intensive industry. The huge base of workers in Mysore and surrounding areas provides the right atmosphere for such an industry. The variety provided by these incense sticks is diverse.

Mysore rockets-Tipu Sultan the inventor of war rockets

Chinese are generally credited with the first use of rockets. However, Tipu Sultan (the Tiger of Mysore) is the first person to have used rockets for the purpose of warfare. The rockets used by in Mysore were far more advanced than those used for the purpose of entratainment as fireworks. These rockets were superior in that they used iron tubes for holding the propellant.We could as well see this as the birth of the modern rocket launcher. The use of metal provided higher bursting power leading to longer range.

The Rocket Court-Srirangapatna.

Refrences can be found to prove the use of rockets in the battle of Pollilur (1780) in which the Britishwere defeated - a scene celebrated on the walls of Darya Daulat in Srirangapatna - a strong contributory cause is thought to have been the explosion of Colo Baillie’s ammunitiontumbrils, touched off by Mysore rockets. It is interesting to note that no other armies seem to have used rockets at this period or just prior to that. Where the Mysore rockets simply modifications of the cannon ball?Certainly not as can be seen by the Interest of the British in Mysore rockets.These were different in that they were not accompanied by the recoil as in a cannon.

Thanks to the interest of the British in these rockets, they were studied more scientifically!! The industrial revolution provided the tools and materials needed to further the development of rockets. William Congreve was given the job of improving the range of the rockets for possible use against the French. However, it was as late as the end of second world war that Rockets were used as effective weapons.

Rockets were also used in the 3rd and 4th Anglo-Mysore Wars as well; although they caused much confusion and fear especially when used against massed troops or cavalry, they were too inaccurate to tilt decisively the fortunes of battle in favour of Tipu. The Galaxy bazzar (Taramandal Pet) is the place were the rockets and fireworks were manufactured.These rockets are supposed to have consisted of bamboo poles with sharp ends.

The sorry state of affairs is that the only specimen of the Mysore rockets used by Tipu Sultan is in London in the Royal artillery museum .The Rocket court in Srirangapatnam now lies in ruins, being used as a public toilet.Its indeed worth investigating the origins of the rockets in India prior to the Mysore Rockets. The fate of rockets in Mysore seems to have suffered the same fate as rest of the scientific and technical developments in British India.

The recent interest in the rockets of Mysore was stimulated by our Honourable President APJ Abdul Kalam. In his book "Wings of Fire" he mentions, how he saw the picture of the Mysore's Rocket war in NASA. The fact that today India is not inferior to any other nation in its potential to develop and launch rockets is very reassuring. The Tiger of Mysore, Tipu Sultan would have indeed felt proud of this fact.

Mysore to get electirc buses

Mysore is soon to become the first city in the country to get electric buses. The routes along which electric lines are to be laid are being surveyed. The most likely routes will include kuvempunagar.

These buses promise to bring in comfort and eco-friendly service to mysoreans. However, the charges may be more costly than the normal fare charged by normal city bus service. How soon these electic buses will be put into service is not very clear though-as the electric lines are to be laid along the entire route.