Our fun activities since returning to Mysore include:
Skating
Kaveri has progressed to new skates and uniform, again with the Elite Roller Skating Academy
…
Swimming
classes again at our local pool.
and a local dance centre has organised their very own summer camp.
With a day out
The beauty arrives
Manjula’s Car rises again.
I bought it for her ten years ago.
Satish and I had searched Karnataka and eventually found it in Mandya District (near Srirangapatnam).
We needed it, as due to her health Manjula couldn’t safely and comfortably continue to ride pillion on my two wheelers.
We joked that not unlike the Bollywood movie — ‘Driving Miss Daisy” there was a chauffeur ( in our case a white old, not a black guy) and not an aged white woman as passenger but a brown ageless Indian beauty — my MAnjula.
It’s arrived at our house now….
Let’s not talk about when it was supposed to be finished.
The cost is greater than expected but then I did add more to the list of jobs.
Still waiting
We’re getting there.
One more week to go
Hang on a minute there’s… . Another beaut…
No no no we stick with radical red…
A light wavered.
It didn’t go out as she’s very much with me.
Today on the fifth anniversary of losing her —- physically yes —- but not in any other way.
We remember Manjula
A meal is prepared including all her favourite things.
We offer it to her and by praying to her God we help her spirit find her way to the next incarnation.
After a cycle tour I sometimes meander (MAnjula would call it a ‘rounding’ ) through the countryside exploring new places.
After today’s tour with Anni and Sankar I passed through Channahalli, one of my favourite villages, rediscovering another trail only to stumble across newly painted sculptures.
Crazy colours which usually seem to be the original stone colour, they caught my eye.
They’re ‘hero’ stones often a strip of three images. The hero in battle, the celebration afterwards and Pooja to god, usually shiva.
Fab
Lucie from Normandy is a workawayer staying at Mysore Bed and Breakfast and finding time to visit Kaliyuvamane to share her language skills.
The first coat of the new colour.
Lucie and Billet-Doux have taken to walking with me in our park at ten each eve.
A new friend has appeared. After a few false starts and falling over I’ve now managed to photograph her.
She calls out. A sort of sophisticated cheeping sound and flits closeby seemingly sitting intentionally in locations on our route.
Or I’m assuming the best and maybe she wary of the ginger hunter by our side.
Our most popular cycle tour is on Srirangaptnam, the capital of Hyder Ali and his son Tipu’s empire for forty years until 1799.
Tipu’s Summer palace is his wonderful guest house on the island. It’s beautifully painted carved wood with fascinating murals of the second war of Mysore. One of our most regular guests Anna took these great 👍🏽 photos on a recent visit.
previously photographs were not allowed.
After the cycle tour many guests stay on island for lunch and to visit the palace.
Me and MYCycle 