Category: people we’ve met

Longer stick

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I’m slowly learning mango farming. Well reaping the product at least.

We’ve had streams of friends and neighbours on PYO – pick your own and donated kilos of the beauts.

We’ve moved on from the hook on a stick, to the giant butterfly net (not) and used two types of blades to get to a tool standard that works for the reachable ones

I’ve created an extra long pole (metal curtain rod and bamboo) to help reach to the top of the tree and its outer perimeters. The ‘unreachable’ ones are a challenge. The first extension broke, the next couldn’t quite reach

We’re not complaining. Well the old woman that cleans is… as I’ve not achieved the usual standard (I’m certain that’s not true)

Next stage is for someone to climb the tree. Two requests (farmers and experienced friends) haven’t worked out but maybe the grandson might step in.

BUT

We have collected hundreds of mangoes (this is one productive tree) and I’ve ordered a professional telescopic pole.

Delicious breakfast, family from round the back came for Mangoes (but they’re getting harder to reach) and Luca tucking in.

We’re sharing caring types —- some to our human friends, others to fruit bats, squirrels and insects, some have lost patience with me and dived to smash their mango brains on the ground.

Busy first day of February

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An annual treat which passes through our community.

First stages of moving house after Florian came round to help plan.

Kaveri combining the Indian love of noodles and everything K.

Maïlis and Sowbaghya followed up Maria’s Italian treat with more delicious pasta and fab salad.

Yesterday we visited Radhika and her new baby in hospital. I’m not allowed to post photos but mum and baby are doing great.

Mysore Moments.

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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

Sophisticated Kaveri with her mum Chandrika.

Attending Kaveri’s Dad’s (he’s deceased) nephews Muslim wedding. Kaveri is Hindu.

Hiding bride
Crooner
It’s the groom!
Not easy — riding away
Great mix of headwear. Fun spotting the many different styles of clothing
Mysuru Experience

I shared a love story but got no photos.

Illuminations for Dasra , more to follow
New friend.

Awards Ceremony for Asha my yoga teacher.

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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.

Memory Lane

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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

Stephen and Tricia with my mum’s poodle.

A great revisit. The house no longer exists but there was plenty of reminiscence.

Part two

A lovely couple.

Creating Stones

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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.

We can see all the stages of creating a statue: from the rough hewn shape through to the final finish

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 teacher’s teacher approves

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

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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..

Who is this guy, who pops up everywhere? An active entrepreneur who’s become a good friend.
Great to catch up with established and meet new friends.

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  

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I’ll write separately about Mysore – Mysuru, about the city’s name and history but this is not the place.