Category: people we’ve met

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. 

Help – Break the crate..

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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 …

Surely you can do better than this!!

Eight Auspicious Symbols:

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Curtains on our guest room and library doors.

Here is the English translation of the Tibetan text , describing the Eight Auspicious Symbols:

  1. The Wheel: Symbolizes the teaching of the Dharma (the Three Baskets) and the transmission of the Three Trainings to disciples.
  2. The Parasol: Represents the dispelling of the heat of suffering and afflictions for sentient beings.
  3. The Victory Banner: Symbolizes the defeat of Mara and non-Buddhist opponents, and the complete perfection of the major and minor marks of enlightenment.
  4. The Endless Knot: Represents the complete perfection of all qualities and the possession of the five wisdoms.
  5. The Right-Turning Conch Shell: Symbolizes the melodious sound of the Buddha’s speech proclaiming the Dharma.
  6. The Vase: Represents being completely filled with the essence of good qualities and serving as a support for pure merit.
  7. The Lotus: Symbolizes being in the world but uncontaminated by it, untainted by the impurities of karma and afflictions.
  8. 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.

Dorjee visited us in Mysore with a gift of a Buddhist flag and helped us better understand the auspicious 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.

South West England

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Leaving behind the cloudy dismal weather I’m now exploring English history and beautiful countryside.

All with friends who have visited Mysore Bed and Breakfast over the years.

Ruth
The Brits love gardening
Jony’s beautiful cottage
Bath
Sue and Chris were the first of these friends to visit Mysore BnB
They also love their cats
Jony followed up with a visit
As did Ruth
Stephen our coms expert (and not only with bees) always finds interesting places to visit when I’m in Kingsclere.
Decanting the honey.

Mama Maria

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“Don’t forget your sun screen and water!”

Maria checks that I’m properly equipped for the day ahead.

Maria first visited Mysore five years ago, a few months after I lost MAnjula.

I’m on my annual trip to the U.K. but Maria had noticed I was coming and sent an invite for me to visit her in Italy

This wonder puts me up at her house, ferries me around, provides simple sophisticated food, takes me on day trips, guides me on walks, introduces me to her fab friends, provides happy insights into her own life and Italianeeeeez.

Maria is a good example of the lovely people that visit Mysore Bed and Breakfast but she’s even more special.

I’m trying to emphasise BK with Kaveri who can quickly tell me what it means: Be Kind.

Well Maria is overflowing with kindness.

Not just in hosting me…

That’s nothing by comparison with the total package …

…. she goes way beyond the stereotypical caring mama … to be a caring precious friend.

She has a social conscience reflected in the life she leads and her work in helping others to flourish through the organisations she sets up and the services they provide. She lives and breaths this throughout her living.

She’ll be revisiting Mysore again in August to undertake training as a yoga teacher and look forward to her becoming Kaveri’s Italian auntie.

I’m honoured to count Maria as an important person in my life, a cherished friend.

Footnote

She claims I photograph her as much as her dad (I think mine capture her essence as I’m certain her dad does) but she’s tolerant and I love that she’s my friend.

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Thank you Maria for a happy time and the closeness we’ve established. I look forward to more to come.

Love from Stephen.

Dancing with the Bees

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Pheromone lure to attract
Ballet
Capturing in the net
Drones (seeking a queen to mate)
Being marked

No bees were harmed. It was ‘citizen’ research on Greenham Common in south England.

Capturing Drones (male bees no sting) who are looking for queens to mate. We hope to track which hives they are from.

It’s one of many places where Drones congregate, as part of their life’s purpose, to find a queen to mate.

Most are unsuccessful and disappointed.

Of course the odds are stacked against them.

Footnote

Initiated by Stephen Fleming with the help of the Newbury and District Beekeepers’ Association on Greenham Common in South England.

Stephen and Richard, from our team, are editors of the leading U.K. magazine BeeCraft.

Follow the link for more info on beekeeping in the U.K.