First of all, let me offer my apologies for being late in coming up with this second part. Was little busy with work related stuff and travels to my home town. Anyway, here I go.
The timings of the palace illumination were written in a flux board on the way. Normally, the illumination lasts for an hour during weekends (7.00 PM ' 8.00 PM); due to Dussehra it was extended to one more hour (i.e. till 9.00 PM). Once we reached the palace gate, Adarsh asked for the car keys since he forgot to take something. I gave him the keys and he left for the parking lot. Meanwhile, Baburaj and I started clicking the illuminated palace gate.
In 5 minutes, while we were wondering where Adarsh was, my mobile started ringing. Yes, it was Adarsh on the other end. And what he had to tell me was something really scary. The worst nightmare had come true. He accidentally left the car key inside the car and closed the door. Now we have a locked car with the key inside it!
We rushed to the spot and started whacking our IT brains for algorithms and project plans on how to open the car without a key. I wish I had a car that opens the door when I say “Open Sesame”. But it only happened in Arabian Nights. Nevertheless, now we started thinking like thieves. If we could get a metal scale of 30 centimeters or something like that, we could slide it in through the gap in between the glass and door on the driver's side window and hit the lever that locks the door. If we hit the right area, we could open the door. Sethu started asking all the near by shops for a metal scale or something similar to that. The entire search went in vain.
Another driver (a Keralite) also came to help us. He also suggested the same thing; get a metal scale. At last, Adarsh and Baburaj decided to go in search of a shop to buy a metal scale. Time elapsed and minutes felt like hours while Sethu and I waited for their return. We were so restless, that we called Adarsh and Baburaj every now and then. At last, they got what we were looking for and got back at around 8.45 PM.
Everything was pretty fast after that. After several attempts with the scale, we were able to open the door. It was then that I realized how secure any car out there is? It didn't take more than 5 ' 10 mins to open the car. It was already 8.55 PM and we now had only 5 more minutes before the palace illumination came to an end. We took the keys, locked the car and ran towards Mysore Palace to capture the beauty of the lights before it goes off.
Something is better than nothing and I was satisfied with the something that I got from there. I got few stills of the palace although I didn't have much choice of angle to compose proper pictures due to the very limited time frame. Just like the old saying ' Beggars can't be choosers.
I also got a few candid frames of the street sellers who were selling toys near the palace. Anyhow we missed the Dussehra celebrations that were there in front of the palace as it was all over by that time. We have no choice but to wait one more year to capture the same.
We returned to our room after the shoot, and had dinner in between. We started planning the next day's activities. As per our initial plans, we had to go to Gopalswamy Betta, approximately 70 kilometers away from Mysore. It is one of the highest peaks in Bandipur National Park and is definitely worth a visit. But we were all pretty exhausted due to the unexpected events of the day and the walk in the Zoo. We didn't want to waste time in travel again and didn't want to miss out Chamundi Hills. Hence, we dropped Gopalswamy Betta from the plan and decided that we shall move to Chamundi hills early in the morning. Alarms were set and we dozed off to sleep.
The Alarms went off at 6.00 AM on Adarsh's or Baburaj's mobile (don't remember whose mobile now). I don't even remember if the alarms actually rang or not and I bet none of us heard it. Any way, it was me who woke up first, and when I woke up, it was almost 7.30 AM. I woke the others up and we rushed to finish our morning chores to get ready for the expedition. Around 8.15 ' 8.30 AM, we hit the road and started moving towards Chamundi hills.
I think mentioning a few words about Chamundi Hills won't be boring here. As per Hindu mythology, Goddess Chamundeswari killed the demon Mahishasura in a battle on this hill and hence the name “Chamundi Hills”. There is a beautiful temple of Goddess Chamundeswari on the hills. Another attraction is the big statue of Nandi situated a little below the hill. A panoramic view of the Mysore city is visible from the top of the hills. And during dusk, the view of the city is extremely beautiful. If it's a day in which, Mysore palace gets illuminated, it would definitely be a treat for your eyes.
Chamundeswari temple is 13 kilometers from Mysore city and we reached there pretty fast after our breakfast which we had on the way. (We had put the wheels to a halt twice to take pictures in between.) After parking the car in the parking lot, we got into business and our cameras ceased to rest. The street peddlers and shops there gave us enough opportunity to click and Sethu was also more than happy, because we gave him the attention he craved for at constant intervals. He enjoyed the role of being a model in front of three hungry cameras.
After spending some quality time near the Chamundeswari temple, filling the memory cards, we decided to move down. On the way, we went to the big statue of Nandi, took some snaps and proceeded to move to Mysore. We were all little tired and took rest for a while before vacating our room. Around noon, we set the engine back on fire and moved towards Bangalore.
Our search for a place to have lunch ended up in a restaurant of Country Club on the highway. As none of us were members of the club, and since it was already a little late (around 2.00 PM), it took quite some time to get the food served for 4 hungry guys like us? Once it was served, everything vanished within minutes and we continued our journey after paying the bills.
The music of Anoushka Shankar and Ghazals by Hariharan gave me company on our drive back; along with that was Baburaj, who was scratching his head trying to maintain and settle the accounts of the trip and the occasional snores of Adarsh and Sethu which rose from the rear seat.
Please find a picture from the trip below. Hope you will like it.
Mysore Palace - Illuminated
the pic is marvellous…..shining with all its glory