I’m sitting here, writing responses to our Trip Adviser reviews. I’m partly avoiding doing the accounts. Lucy is asleep at my feet. We’ve already been for our morning walk. I can hear Manjula in the background. Water is running, there’s swishing and swashing, the team are at it, Manjula gently instructs and actively gets involved. She’s so many good things rolled into one and that includes her tremendous managements skills.
Well it’s a great job because in many ways it’s not a job. It our life, sharing our home, meeting great people, hearing their stories, cracking jokes (which are sometimes understood) and getting the immense satisfaction that people enjoy time with us and have a wonderful time in Mysore.
Here’s just on of our over one hundred reviews and I’ve chosen it because I wasn’t here when the guests stayed.
because we enjoy what we’re doing and we get such positive feedback….
Slogans, pithy sayings, brands gone wrong… there must be tons of humorous examples. I’ve spotted a fair few in my travels and many more since I came to live here in India. So let’s have a break from all this boring stuff about IDs, bureaucracy, passports, visa. Can you find examples from here in India or elsewhere? of often unintended or everyday humour? So the gauntlet is down, let’s see your best examples. …..I’ll start us off….. Here’s a couple on T shirts, to get us going
for me it’s not just the slogan but the context, often poor innocent guys who may have little idea what they’re wearing.
don’t get me wrong. I’m not putting the guy down. just the whole idea that there’s a leap quantum or otherwise, just seems so funny.
Now the next one knew exactly the nuance of the message, I met him on a cycle tour up Chamundi Hill and he was interested to know its origin with the band: Pink Floyd. Now some smart alec is going to inform me it originated somewhere else!
So this is an open invitation, give us your suggestions.
Yes, let’s give her a break….. A new visa application is IN.
She needs one, who wouldn’t, after being with Stephen for OVER six Years?! yes Six years!
We’ve been overcome with the support, since the news got out about the rejection, from our wonderful friends, many of whom are visitors to us here at Mysore Bed and Breakfast.
Thank you, it means a lot to get that encouragement and emotional support. We’ve also had tons of invites for holidays elsewhere. Top of the list at the moment (from the no. of suggestions) are UK (ha ha thanks for that ), Australia, Canada, Europe (we’re voting to stay IN) and Israel.
So the thing is, the new application is submitted and we think we’re providing firm evidence on the main issue. She just wants a holiday and she really isn’t trying to slip into the country and stay there!!! She doesn’t want to move to the UK
Can you send an Email to Manjula?
Maybe emphasising something on the lines of:
how she really is Mysore Bed and Breakfast and is critical to its continuing success
how and what you enjoyed about your stay
that you’ll be back
and any other way you can demonstrate your support
Every little might help, who knows?
Manjula@mycycle.co
She has an established life here, a job, she’s critical to the BnB, we have invested in our life here with a dog, a redecorated five bedroom house, a bike, a car, a successful business, a lovely garden that’s taken an age to create, has dependents who rely on her, such as her mother and she doesn’t wish to move to the UK.
So why the photo of the Brahma Kamla flower?
These flowers are very auspices. Each flower only lasts one night. It is at it’s best at midnight and the aroma is beautifully overpowering. They are not at all easy to grow. They are therefore considered very lucky. On the past three nights we’ve had a total of fifteen, yes fifteen of these flowers. So we hope the Brahma is with-us on this next bit of the journey of: ‘The Passage from India!’
I’d called at the shopping mall and parked the Enfield (aka CE) just outside on a grotty verge near to some street food stalls. I couldn’t have been much more than twenty minutes, time to grab a snack and Nutella stuff for the children for tomorrow’s pancake breakfast. (the Maple syrup fresh from Canada will NOT be opened).
I’m trying to write this at the dining table and Manjula has just brought tea and biscuits. I’m on a fitness and not-eating-crap period and she knows it. She’s trying to entice me with the biscuits. Now she’s got one half in her mouth and waving it in my direction. She’s a minx!
back to the nonsense of today….
On finishing shopping and returning outside, it all looked odd and I felt seriously uncomfortable. The verge was completely empty and there was no bike to be seen. Sugar! I also couldn’t find my keys…… nicked? God knows!
It’s then I saw the Tiger.
Its a pick up truck operated by the Police that goes around the city lifting illegally parked two wheelers. The policeman and I didn’t really understand each other but if they had it, it was at the Transport Police depot on my way home. So I trudged off……. waaaay!
She was there!
You can see her peeking out from the corner of the police station, with my red helmet still on her seat.
What a relief, she hadn’t been stolen!
So I turned up with my documents. They knew nothing about the keys. so actually its quite a relief that the Police picked it up, otherwise someone might have found the keys and nicked it!
Things work out in the end, or so we need to tell ourselves in dealing with the OTHER big issue in our lives, at the moment.
I paid my fine of 200 Rs and an additional 100 Rs charge to pay for the Tiger, picking up and transporting it. So that’s no big deal. but hang on a minute. The minimum pay which many people don’t even get is 200 Rs per day. So it has cost quite a lot of money to someone with little. To them its the equivalent of a day and a half’s pay!
But then again they probably wouldn’t have been an idiot and got the bike picked up in the first place! 🙂
So why am I telling you all about this? Maybe it’s distraction therapy…. eh and guess what happened when I got back to the bike…….
Well Manjula does obviously! I’ll be in the UK on one of my three trips per annum in July and plans are in place to take Manj.
An application for a tourist visa has therefore been submitted to the British Government.
We used the opportunity, in yet another trip to Bangalore, to see the sites and grab some food. No micro-brewery as I’m off alcohol, partly to reduce the flab!
I’ve pretty much done all the work on the visa application. I’m not quite sure that Manjula completely understands about the process and rules. I’m not sure that I do myself. Does anyone?
I’ve explained, in the application, I hope, that Manjula as my fiancée, really is my dependent so I’ll be financing the whole trip. We have an established business here in Mysore and Manj has her mum to care for, so we will be returning. I think there are two main areas of concern they will have: that there is enough money available and that she has an established life here and will definitely be returning.
The excitement is palpable and I’m trying to tone it down a bit, explaining that we might fail and why the UK Govt might not give it.
Anyway it was submitted two weeks ago. We now await the result and we expect it VERY soon.
I still facilitate ‘training’ workshops for corporate clients. An absolutely critical part of the sessions is to help people see things from the others’ point of view. This is, of course, not just relevant to business.
Alexander McCall Smith puts it like this….
“People tried to understand, and many did, but not everybody could make the imaginative leap that landed one in a position of another person, in their shoes, in their very garments, looking out on the world with their eyes, feeling what went on inside their hearts; being made to cry by the things that made them want to cry. That was easy in theory, but hard in practice. They pretended to understand because they could not know – not really know – what it was like to be the other. That was because it was not them. That was why they could not think that. It had to be you.”
in his novel: Trains and Lovers.
If I understand some of his teachings correctly the Dalai Lama shows that this is what compassion is about. Seeing things from the others’ point of view.
I know its hard but in life, it’s important that we should try.
Meet Mr Pai, he’s not unlike the literary Mr Pye he’s most definitely a dreamer. One of the many ways they differ however is our Mysore Mr Pai or I should rightly say Dr Pai is also very much a deliverer.
Mr Pai,now in his late 70’s, is a successful entrepreneur, who is the founder and Managing Director of VWF Industries (P) Ltd which does of things to do with wire and lighting which I don’t really understand. The point is, he is an enthusiastic initiator with a strong track record in business and follows through on his ideas.
It’s his more recent interest and enthusiasms that have grabbed me.
Manjula and I met him today during a sort of meditative session at the Himalayan Crystal Salt Cave. Ok its a room rather than a natural cave but how amazing and it’s one of his initiatives. It is 360 degrees of salt from left to right, top to bottom, under and over… The cave is the first proper one in India and we have it here in Mysore. You book an hours session and hang out in the positive ions man! Just breath it all in. Supporters suggest it has general health benefits and specifically for those with any problems with their lungs. It reminds me of the Himalayan salt lamp in my UK home, years ago. Well, we went to test it out and we were very impressed. More of that later.
But that’s not all he’s now got into a range of initiatives with local communities through his foundation and his latest business idea relates to what he calls structured water.
So as you can tell I was really impressed with Dr Pai’s enthusiasm and spirit. He’s one of the great people we’ve met in our life here in Mysore. He very much reminds me of another entrepreneur who I had the great fortune to meet before he died. Ray Anderson of Interface was also an inspiration. In Ray’s case he was an astonishing leader in introducing innovations and in many ways made sustainable business make sense. I salute them both!
It was not an unusual type of telephone enquiry for a room at the BnB. An Indian woman travelling with her ten-year-old son required a room for the following day and for a total of four nights.
We did have a room so I offered to send details to her email address so she would know what to expect. It’s our usual practice. She explained that she would be unable to read the email [1] but she’d seen us on the net so knew what to expect. She followed up by sending a text with her name, she was a Doctor [2]
the empty bedroom
Next morning I received a phone call from her with some urgency and concern. Could I recommend the best hospital in Mysore? She’d had an accident in her car and her son was injured. They were in a country area, quite a way from Mysore. She’d dealt with his immediate needs and where they now were didn’t have the facilities to treat her son’s condition. It sounded more serious than I first thought. They would need to transfer to Mysore. I recommended the Columbia Asia Hospital.
Beyond that, it was unclear, it seemed like she was now separated from her car, it was I assumed, badly damaged.
Of course, I was shocked and concerned and willing to help wherever I could.
A little later she telephoned again. She had contacted the Mysore hospital and was making arrangements for the transfer. It was all a little hurried and she was understandably panicky and not always making a lot of sense. [3] Someone had kindly covered the bill but she needed some help, to pay him back. Her money, cards etc were left in the car or taken by someone. Her mother was to call me from North India to explain things.
Her Mum was understandably concerned and was planning to get down here from Assam. That would be no easy task. She’d been unable to pay the guy who had helped out by paying the bills, could I help?
There was a bank strike where she was and didn’t have all the details of his branch (the IFSC No) so it wasn’t possible to do a transfer via the internet. It could, however, be paid into a branch of his bank. Of course, I’d be willing to help, she’d transfer 1 lakh to my account and from it I’d pay 40,000 Rs [4] cash into this guy’s account and the rest would be available for her daughter to use for the hospital bills etc here in Mysore. All I had to do was send my bank details, for some reason she couldn’t retrieve them via my suggestion of an Email [5] so I’d send them via text/sms. Not a problem.
Her daughter calls to give me an update. She’s so apologetic for putting me through this and having to ask for my help. She’s contacted Doctor xx in Columbia Asia and they need to get her son there to see the neurologist. Getting the money quickly is critical, so they can get away.
This was clearly a middle-class professional family with exceptionally good English but one of the problems, beyond the obvious concern for her son, was not knowing the local language and being in a relatively rural area.
I receive a text from Mum, as sent from her bank [6], the cash had been transferred.
Mum calls again. The money has left her bank but it might take a couple of hours to reach my bank.
I reflect. It’s no problem for me to sort out, I’m always happy to help wherever I can, I have cash here or money in the Bank, I don’t have to wait for it to come through, I can zip over there on the scooter in no time at all.
This is all quite urgent.
Hang on a minute, though.
I have a niggling doubt.
Is this a con? I don’t want to think it is and I most definitely don’t want to let them down if it’s legitimate. They are in a potentially difficult and maybe life threatening situation.
I think it’s important that we do help people, particularly if they are in distress. It’s only human and to me an important value.
But, there were a few aspects that didn’t ring true (I’ve numbered some of them above) and if it was a scam, it was clever and sophisticated or am I just gullible? I discussed it with Chris and Eliza who are staying at the BnB. Initially, I still felt it was likely to be legitimate but the more I thought about it, the more the doubts grew.
I easily found the missing Bank (IFSC) reference number and texted to pass it on and suggested that the Mum could send the money direct to his account. If she sent me her bank details I could send back what wasn’t required here in Mysore. I was calling her bluff!
It’s now the evening and its all gone quiet. Thankfully I held off and my doubts were confirmed. There’s been no further contact and the money hasn’t appeared in the bank.
At this distance, it might seem to you that it should have been obvious. It wasn’t then but to me it does seem so now. In many ways, it was cleverly done. But the fraudsters must get results otherwise they wouldn’t try it on.
So there it is, it takes all sorts and I think it is a sad thing.
and the message… “application being reviewed by the Regional Passport office” which is a completely useless update.
So we’re all going to have a break and not do the passport blog thing over the weekend.
I can hear the sighs of relief and hip hip hoorays reverberating around the Facebook and blog world…. 😉
To bring it, nearly up to date (blog time is like winter time as its a bit behind) so far, we’ve:
revised and amended Manjula’s ID ( Aadhar card) so it is now correct and consistent,
visited the Bank manager for documents to prove her address,
obtained the TC (transfer certificate from her school)
applied and received a PAN (tax card) card,
sworn an affidavit with the advocate,
submitted the online application and documents,
attended the Bangalore office to actually submit the application itself and for Manjula to be interviewed,
met the police,
neighbours signed forms and verification report gone from Police to Regional Passport Office.
phew……
It’s cost thousands of Rupees, endless meetings, hours on the internet and in traffic and a ton more grey hairs
and I’ve learned a LOT
but there is the risk of it taking over and lethargy air got there first, so let’s have a nice relaxing weekend and a cycle trip with Simon in the morning
Mysore Bed and Breakfast is very much an open house, where we have now welcomed guests for over four years. A great community is beginning to develop. It’s formed from our guests, many who have returned or know of us through other friends, together with out team of drivers, gardener, cleaners, the hosts (Manjula, Lucy and the Yorkshireman) . There is also a network of other friends such as Homestay hosts and tour companies that collaborate to provide a great experience for visitors to this wonderful India. This helps create a richer life experience for us (eh… we don’t need to travel, the world comes here 🙂 !) and a greater depth for our visitors.
We’ve decided to introduce some of our community beginning with one of our guests.
Stephen F (a different Stephen F 😉 ) is a keen touring cyclist who has been to Mysore BnB maybe three times. He’s even left one of this cycles here for regular use! Originally from Northern Ireland he now lives in England and works as a communications consultant. Stephen goes way beyond the cycle tours we provide. He recently visited again doing a cycle loop travelling from here and taking in the National Parks. Previously he’s toured parts of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. On his first visit here we were amazed to realise we’d spoken to each other over the phone earlier in our careers in the early 1990s…. the coincidences of India, great stuff!
He’s just bought a rather expensive cycle and whenever we’ve had prospective guests planning on long and overnight tours we ask for Stephen’s help, whether its planning the tour, working out the best maps, finding suitable accommodation or general survival tips on cycling in India. Stephen has been a godsend. He now joins and has helped organise our family cycle tours back in the UK.
Stephen, as you would expect, has been on all our tours. Stephen and I have now started to develop longer tours taking in the local countryside, villages and my favourite, Srirangaptnam island.
See the map below.
Other cycling guests are also suggesting their favourite tours.
So this next year we’ll be inviting cyclists to come base their holidays here, join us on our established tours and we’ll help them design day tours in and around this wonderful area
wearing.
She was there!
the equivalent of a day and a half’s pay!
I still facilitate ‘training’ workshops for corporate clients. An absolutely critical part of the sessions is to help people see things from the others’ point of view. This is, of course, not just relevant to business.
of the many ways they differ however is our Mysore Mr Pai or I should rightly say Dr Pai is also very much a deliverer.
We’ve decided to introduce some of our community beginning with one of our guests.
Stephen, as you would expect, has been on all our tours. Stephen and I have now started to develop longer tours taking in the local countryside, villages and my favourite, Srirangaptnam island.
Me and MYCycle 