In Devaraja Market

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On Monday, we headed to downtown Mysore to replenish our book supply at a 3-story bookstore, eat a South Indian Thali (set vegetarian all-you-can-eat meal) at our favorite local place (Das Prakash Hotel) ($.90), and wonder around Devaraja Market, an everything market -- veggies, fruit, flowers, cane sugar, pots and pans, plastic-ware, incense, essential oils, wood carvings, everything everything everything else.

The essential oils sales guy sucked us in with lots of lovely scents. He claimed the oils were all natural, from flowers and fruits and such, and that many scents of famous western-brand perfumes are really based on these oils. He explains these are pure oils, just the essense, so long-lasting and lovely. After letting us smell multiple lovely scents (like lotus flower, orange blossom, jasmine, etc), he put a sample on my forearm. As he's putting it on me, he names the plant the oil is derived from, but I didn't understand the word. And then after it's on my arm, he says Calvin Klien perfume is based on this oil. Oh yes, indeed, for the rest of the day, I smelled like the over-after-shaved boys in the hallways in high school 15 years ago....

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Photos

Truck filled with cilantro
Cilantro is a very common ingredient in South Indian cooking, to my great pleasure.

Boy with his squash-like vegetable
Real name yet unknown, but it resembles a large zuchini crossed with a summer-squash.

Lillie gets her hand painted
Paint powder seller demonstrates how the paint is used: just add water, and it paints on paper, sidewalks, or even you skin.

The Oil Salesman
He proclaims he looks like Johnny Depp

Woman string flowers into garlands
The flower garlands are hung in sacred places like the temple and the home alter, as well as over pictures of the deceased, over the entrance to the home, from the rear view mirror, and so on.