Wanting to see a little bit of Mysore, Tom and I decided to head out of the compound. We took a rickshaw to a small temple downtown. This was an interesting experience, but we both know very little about the temple culture. We took off our shoes and entered, with a large number of other people. There was a long line that wrapped around a center room. We could not see into the room, but there must have been something important inside. Beating drums and singing could be heard from inside. I was worried about doing something that may be taken as offensive, so I did not wish to enter. Outside there was a small altar where people were throwing incense and oil into a fire. Behind this was another small altar. There was a bare-chested man giving patrons rose-water and oil. They would walk around the altar several times, ringing a bell each time, then would kneel down to pray.
Next we decided to take another rickshaw to Devaraja Market. This is the Mysore's famous outdoor market. After being dropped off we crossed the four 'lanes' of traffic, which was no simple feat, and had trouble figuring out how to enter the market. I found a way that we could walk around, but this may have been a little bit of a mistake. This was the 'back-way', a muddy road with vendors swiping at flies as they tried to sell us chicken and pork hanging from hooks and an overwhelming smell of human feces mixed with rotting vegetables and meat. Once inside, however, the market was fairly pleasant. There was a great sea of humanity in the aisles, but that is to be expected anywhere in urban India. Each aisle was about 60-70m long, and usually sold only one type of item, e.g. a banana aisle, mango aisle, incense aisle, vegetable aisle. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures, as the environment did not seem too safe. My ass was constantly grabbed as I'm guessing people were attempting to pick-pocket. Joke is on them, seeing as though my ATM card has not worked, and I actually have 0 money right now. I'm sure I will be going back to the market though, so pictures will come. Tom bought some bananas, which turned out to be pretty good.
We headed across the street to a fabric shop. This place was pretty upscale, although relatively inexpensive. Mysore is also famous for silk-woven garments and this shop had a wide variety to choose from. They also had tailor made linen pants for about $20, so another trip is definitely happening. After that shop we had lunch at the restaurant we get our meals from. This was my first meal eating with my fingers in about a decade. It also may have been the spiciest meal I have ever experienced. Good, but incredibly spicy with no suitable water to drink. My nose was like a faucet after the meal was done.
We came back to the house, and I read on the porch for a while. The little boy joined me, with his new coloring book and crayons my grandma gave me. The book has a paint-by-number page with all the children having blond hair and pink skin. In his coloring book, all the people have brown skin and black hair, and all the trees are green (they have a lot of palm trees and their trunks are rather green). He also wanted to take one of me....thanks for the close-up little one. Anyway, it was fun, as always, to interact with the kid.
I had parota for dinner, which were the best thing I have eaten thus far. Reminded me of a Salvadoran Papusa. After dinner, I played with the kids a little bit because they were getting a kick out of the coloring books. They insisted that I color the pages, but they wouldn't let me choose the colors. The family also enjoyed my camera and we engaged in a little photo shoot. It was pretty fun, but I'm still not used to the time and I needed to go to bed around 9pm.
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