Day 46, Mysore [Friday 18th January 2008]

We have breakfast at a place that specialises in dosas - it's all they make. When they arrive they are soft, almost like pancakes. The masala potato filling is lovely, and I have a second dosa. We wander around the broad streets of Mysore for a while. It's clean here, and very busy. There are several cows walking around, painted yellow.

We go to see the Maharaja's palace - Mysore's main attraction. The palace sits in expansive grounds, and is itself large, extravagant and occasionally gaudy. It is also curiously empty, as if waiting for somebody to move in. Unlived in, it feels lifeless and somewhat tatty, although the octagonal wedding mandapa (a pillared hall for public rituals) is particularly striking.

We eat lunch at Hotel RRR, where we get thalis served up on banana leaves. It's all too easy to overeat when tucking into a delicious thali - waiters come around every five minutes and spoon rice out, as well as bringing various veg dishes which you may or may not have already. Good thali places invariably have a big queue, and everyone piles in together so you're likely to find yourself on a table full of strangers, who may amuse themselves by watching you eat, or may ignore you completely.

At 6pm we get a rickshaw a little way out of town to the Maharaja Centenary Hall - a small college hall where the University of Mysore has put on a 5 day festival of Carnatic music. The percussionist tonight is apparently very well known. His name is Umayalpuram Sri K Sivaraman.

Here's a video of him playing, from another concert. He really kicks in around the 7 minute mark:



The other percussionist is playing what looks like a water bottle - a round clay jar that has a deep ringing sound but looks somewhat painful to play. There's is also a violinist and two singers. The concert is enjoyable, the violin in particular giving a strong, sorrowful performance. Weirdly, they keep the lights on for concerts here. Then, halfway through the concert, there is a loud bang and the power fails. The hall is plunged into darkness and silence. There are a few moments of inertia, then many people reach habitually into their bags to turn their torches on. There follows about 20 minutes of patient waiting while a generator is revved up, and eventually the concert continues.

There is a big selection of Carnatic CDs and live recordings for sale afterwards, then we walk back some distance in the dark before a rickshaw turns up to take us back into Mysore.