Shopping scores galore in Mysore’s stores

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April 5th 2008

Published: April 18th 2008

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many colours of tikka

In traveling around India we have noticed that one gesture, above all others, seems to tie a nation of diverse religions, languages, and classes together; that gesture is the head bobble. If you are absolutely positive about something and would like to convey the affirmative in a confident way, bobble your head. If you need a strong gesture to indicate the negative in any circumstance, bobble your head. If you have no clue what someone just asked you, or, you have no clue as to how to answer the question being asked, bobble your head. If you want to say hello to someone on the street whom you just met, say hello, smile, and, bobble your head. The head bobble seems to underline the reoccurring theme of ambiguity that is prevalent in all the places we have traveled to in the subcontinent. It is the perfect gesture to convey a whole host of meaning, but, without indicating exactly which meaning you are attempting to convey. It is absolutely noncommittal and perfectly confusing. Next time you want to communicate something without actually sending the message, just bobble your head.

Our primary reason to visit Mysore was to gawk at the opulence

palace

of the Maharaja’s Palace and rest up before heading into the jungles of Kerela. The palace, from the outside, was quite nice with onion domes, bronze tigers, temples, and manicured lawns. Inside, it was obvious that the decorators had huge budgets and little talent (or poor direction), especially when gazing upon turquoise and pink color combinations, painted faux columns, pure silver doors, a wheelie cart made of gold and stuffed elephant heads. The palace screamed of useless extravagance and represented a tasteless use of public funds, but hey, when you are king, why not sit upon a golden throne and watch the commoners starve to death? Mysore didn’t have much in the way of big ticket attractions apart from the Maharaja’s Palace, so, we spent a good bit of time wandering around, eating snacks (some killer date and coconut laddu, and delicious barfi) and shopping for souvenirs. Nicole and Rozy got severely addicted to the jewelry shops around town and I ended up further developing my addiction to handcrafted boxes of metal and wood. The girls became so absorbed in their hunt for necklaces that we missed our checkout time, and had to forward our departure from Mysore till the

Spud Man

next day.

While the girls were trying on every piece of jewelry in the stores, I was rummaging through a pile of old India coins lying on a mat in front of the shopping emporium. Initially, I was only interesting in purchasing a few old East India company coins with Victoria’s fat, ugly face on them, however, due to my superlative bargaining skills (or the seller’s desire to offload some junk) I walked away with a handful of random coins, some of which were claimed to be 400 years old. Either way I didn’t pay much and walked away confused carrying a handful of tarnished metal which Nicole promptly labeled my “cereal-box prize” (obviously she is jealous).

Mysore was a good stopover for a day to kick around and relax a bit…not too much to do in the town, but, it has a relatively laid back vibe, a nice market and some decent handicraft shopping. The sandalwood products (for which Mysore is known) are quite nice, however, they are expensive as the government imposes strict price controls over all sandalwood products….perhaps a better idea to get that clever little wooden box or figurine in teak, ebony, walnut or