I collected Kaveri from her grandmothers and brought her home with me for the week.
It’s Dasara school holiday and I’ve already buckled down to help with her homework.
Today we visited the flower show and the food mela. 
Yesterday
Category: people we’ve met
Mysore Moments.
I find myself in interesting situations.
That’s the nature of India.
Meeting women from famous families, telling stories at events, Hindu/Muslim mixed marriages, life is a rich mix of experiences!
Especially at the moment with our annual event
Attending Kaveri’s Dad’s (he’s deceased) nephews Muslim wedding. Kaveri is Hindu.
I shared a love story but got no photos.
Awards Ceremony for Asha my yoga teacher.
…
I missed taking photos of the women.
Daughter of a Kannada novelist known as Triveni and sister of the founder of a change-making low cost airline.
Two exhibitions in one day
The annual exhibition of the Royal Academy
Followed by a film show
This one shares images from demonstrations highlighting those against the Israeli state’s killings in Gaza
And others helping people raise their voice
At a time when the U.K. government is using legislation and extending police powers to shut us up!
Here’s one I passed through in real time
Earlier in the day, in London.
Jorinda and Joringel
By the brothers Grimm Illustrations by Paula Schmidt
A gift from Alan for Manjula’s Library.
Thank you Alan.
Memory Lane
Part one with Julia and Tom
My tour of England led me to Sheffield, my home city.
Warm showers
I was visiting Julia and Tom intrepid cyclists who’d visited us last year, in Mysore, on their journey across Asia, through Europe and back home to England.
Warm showers is a network we’re part of where hosts offer an overnight stay to distance cyclists.
They now live in Sheffield the city of my birth and their new home is just round the corner from the first place I escaped to at age 18
That was fifty years ago. I lived with my first serious girlfriend Tricia who kindly supported me for the final few months of school
A great revisit. The house no longer exists but there was plenty of reminiscence.
Part two
Creating Stones
It’s the last few days before the summer school holiday ends.
There’s time to fit in one more activity
Our new good friend Pravalika introduced Kaveri to the art of stone carving
We’re at one of the most famous stone-carvers in India and it’s in Mysore.
It’s surprisingly delicate and quite fast.
Pravalika is a patient teacher and patient carver, she wonderfully manages the double pressure.
Kaveri is, of course, also a star.
The elder, yes that’s me, managed an inch of carving before the women gave up in despair.
New spots? Maybe not.
The chief stone carver and therefore the workshop famously created the statue for the new Ayodya Temple last year.
Kaveri’s first stone carving is dedicated to MAnjula and will be installed at Mysore Bed and Breakfast.
Experiencing Mysore
Mysore is a connecting place, social entrepreneurs, community animateurs are forever initiating new ideas to bring us together.
Sriranjini Simha kindly invited me to experience mysore. Well I have been doing that for twenty years, initially on holidays and now as resident with our own business. But joking aside this was an invite to a new initiative that is actually called ‘Experience Mysuru’ and I’m so pleased I checked it out.
I’ve always thought that the Mysore city feels more like a village, by that I mean : it has an intimacy, interactivity, on a human scale. Well ‘Experience Mysuru’ reflects exactly that. Mysore has a well deserved reputation as a cultural capital that was fantastically represented last night..
The ‘showcase’ was curated to reveal through the senses of taste, hearing, smell, touch and sight and included: yoga and meditation, ancient board games, percussion, storytelling, dance, music and singing. To be more precise — Chande: the pulse of Karavali, Bharatanatyam, Carnatic music and Kamsale— come find out for yourselves what it is.
I can’t say performers, yes they shared, their skills, they entertained but it went beyond that. Each person introduced their activity to ‘get beneath the skin’ they fitted all this in to just 120 minutes and it was not crammed. It was exactly right, the timing, the diversity, the interactive-ness, the rich content, their expertise, I’ve got to know Mysore a bit over the years but this brought me to so many new layers and levels.
Well done team, we’re rightly proud of our heritage and this was a great way to share with young and old, local and not so local, and I’ll be back..
Thank you Kim Kanchana Ganga, Tanushri SN, Shrimathi and her team, Pranav Athrey’s-Pranav Athreya, Suraksha Dixit, Tejashri Murphy, Pushpa and her team… plus the managers and organisers behind the scenes that put it all together and made it go so smoothly…..
More info
http://www.experiencemysuru.in
0091 8105318650
Info@experiencemysuru.in
@experiencemysuru.in
The venue was the amazing The Heritage House in Saraswathipuram
…
I’ll write separately about Mysore – Mysuru, about the city’s name and history but this is not the place.
Help – Break the crate..
Revealing possibilities
Broadening Horizons
Passing through Barriers
Help girls (and boys) prepare for adult life by introducing yourself and sharing your insights.
Manjula’s Mysore is inviting its guests and members of its monthly meeting: ‘reflective space’ to create a short Introductory video — talking to camera — to reveal what’s possible.
I often use the story of Ganesh and his brother racing each other to reveal to young people that we live in many different worlds — with our immediate family, at home, with friends, at work, our extended family, while travelling.
It’s important to recognise and value difference reflected in those different worlds. That helps us to realise what wide variety of opportunities exist for us.
Many young people don’t understand how different their lives could be.
If we know more, we’re more enlightened and can better choose the life we wish to have, and find what suits us best.
Breaking the crate.
It might mean challenging the status quo and breaking away from what’s traditionally expected of us.
Sharing examples gives others strength.
This idea came from how much Kaveri learned about other people’s worlds by meeting guests of all ages — from India and around the world—- at Mysore Bed and Breakfast.
I hope this helps broaden her horizons and seize opportunities
Manjula realised — that even with a limited education, from a poor background having experienced so many difficult challenges throughout her life — she could create a wonderful home, share it with people from around the world, become a company director, manage our business and teach a Firangi a thing or two!! (Many things actually)
Manjula continues to give.
Look at what she had to put up with …
Family home time
Radhika recently got engaged to Prakash
Eight Auspicious Symbols:
Here is the English translation of the Tibetan text , describing the Eight Auspicious Symbols:
- The Wheel: Symbolizes the teaching of the Dharma (the Three Baskets) and the transmission of the Three Trainings to disciples.
- The Parasol: Represents the dispelling of the heat of suffering and afflictions for sentient beings.
- The Victory Banner: Symbolizes the defeat of Mara and non-Buddhist opponents, and the complete perfection of the major and minor marks of enlightenment.
- The Endless Knot: Represents the complete perfection of all qualities and the possession of the five wisdoms.
- The Right-Turning Conch Shell: Symbolizes the melodious sound of the Buddha’s speech proclaiming the Dharma.
- The Vase: Represents being completely filled with the essence of good qualities and serving as a support for pure merit.
- The Lotus: Symbolizes being in the world but uncontaminated by it, untainted by the impurities of karma and afflictions.
- The Golden Fish: Represents the abandonment of all faults and obstacles.
The text also mentions a quote from the Mahayana sutra called “The Stacked Auspicious Ones,” which describes how these eight symbols relate to different parts of the Buddha’s body and qualities. It concludes with an aspiration for auspiciousness and well-being through these symbols.
The passage notes that while there are more detailed explanations and interpretations of these symbols available, this brief description should suffice as an introduction to their meanings.
Me and MYCycle 