We all know that our Amba Vilas Palace, more popularly known all over the world as the Mysore Palace, is illuminated on all weekends in addition to all festival holidays. However, a recent report says that in addition to this routine illumination it is likely to be illuminated on every Wednesday evening too as a special gesture to the VIP tourists who happen to arrive in Mysore during the middle of the week by the State - sponsored “Golden Chariot”, the special luxury train of the State Tourism Department.
It appears the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) has sent a representation to the Mysore Palace Board to do this as the tourists arriving by the special weekly train were missing the palace illumination which is justifiably one of Mysore’s best attractions.
The Golden Chariot guests who come from every corner of the world and who happen to be among our most distinguished visitors, having spent almost a lakh of rupees per head to board the train, miss the regular illumination of the Palace on Saturdays and Sundays as the train leaves Bangalore on Monday and arrives in Mysore in the evening with the guests being given a two-day stopover during which they go sight - seeing around the city apart from visits to Srirangapatna and Kabini forest area. The train then proceeds to Hassan on Thursday morning.
The Golden Chariot is the third luxury train after Rajasthan’s “Palace on Wheels” and Maharashtra’s “Deccan Odyssey”. This train journey which begins at Bangalore showcases the best tourist attractions of our State over a period of seven nights and eight days in royal if not fairytale luxury.
The Palace Board reportedly spends between Rs. 80 to Rs. 90 lakh every year towards the maintenance of the Palace and the electricity bill towards illuminating it alone comes to about Rs. 80,000 per hour. Although my pocket calculator and I do not understand why it should cost us Rs. 80,000 to light up about a hundred thousand 15 watt electric bulbs for an hour at the going rate per unit of electricity, I do not wish to make this an issue of discussion here today. But nit - pickers like me and critics of this proposal need not despair since the train carries about thirty passengers per trip and it should therefore not be a problem for the KSTDC to pay for this special illumination which is bound to become a free show for our other tourists who happen to be in our city during the middle of the week due to unavoidable constraints in their itineraries.
The most important advantage for the State would be the word – of - mouth publicity our city and our special train journey would get from high profile tourists who would otherwise miss our most memorable attraction by not being here on a weekend. Since I am talking of the special illumination of our palace, it would perhaps be in order if I take this opportunity to narrate an interesting account of another very unusual instance of the illumination of our equally famed Brindavan Gardens for a handful of special guests.
About 25 years ago, when I was doing my post - graduation at the Mysore Medical College, I was in charge of the hospitality arrangements for a group of three examiners from outside the State who were here to conduct the final year MBBS examinations. It was a Saturday and the last day of the examination and all of them were very keen on visiting the Brindavan Gardens that evening after finishing their work. But I sensed well in time that despite doing their best, they seemed all set to miss the deadline of the illumination timings which would make their visit to the place meaningless. So I hit upon a plan to save their day. My close friend and former college mate Ramalingu was the Sub - Inspector of Police at K. R. Sagar. I quickly procured his telephone number from the Police Control Room and called him up to ask if he could extend the illumination of the gardens by about ten minutes.
Thankfully, he was at his desk and when I explained my problem to him he immediately reassured me that he would get the engineer in charge to do this much for my guests and said that he would personally receive us at the dam gate. Reassured, I asked them to hurry up with the last few examinees and also asked our driver to step on the gas once they were done. But despite all these measures, the delay was a little more than what was anticipated and when we reached the place, I was aghast to find it plunged in near total darkness with the illumination over. Cursing both my fate and my friend, I was about to apologize to my guests when I saw him, accompanied by two Constables, waving out to us.
As soon as we got down from the car, the men in uniform welcomed us warmly and reassured us that the show would begin all over again but only after we had had some of the snacks and the piping hot tea they had arranged for us. After a hard and hectic day’s work, it was exactly what we needed to refresh ourselves. Ramalingu introduced us to his engineer friend, who immediately ordered his men to switch on the illumination before allowing our car inside followed by the Police jeep as if in a royal entourage! While all the tourists who were leaving the place were wondering why the lights had come on again, my guests were spellbound not only by the magic of the place which they were seeing for the first time but also by the magnanimity and hospitality of my friend who thought nothing of going out of the way to make them happy, upholding the very Indian concept of “Atithi Devo Bhava”. Needless to say, all the students who took the examination that year came out in flying colours, never knowing why they had fared so well!
Just five years after this memorable and perhaps, one – of – a - kind incident, on 9th April 1990, my dear friend Ramu, as we all used to call him, fell with three of his other colleagues, to the bullets of the forest brigand Veerappan at Hogenakal falls. He was a most cheerful, always-smiling man who used to make all of us laugh endlessly with his sense of humour during our student days. I still think and talk of him often. May he and his friends rest in peace.
Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD
e-mail: kjnmysore@gmail.com
