Fairyland – Brindavan gardens

Located around 19 kilometres from the heart of Mysore, spread over an area of 150 acres, these beautiful gardens are laid out below the Krishnaraja Sagar dam built across the river Cauvery.
The Krishnaraja Sagar Dam (KRS) is an example of excellent engineering and was built by Sir M. Vishveswariah, one of India's finest engineers, in 1924.
He used 'surkhi' a mixture of limestone and brick powder instead of cement. The dam was amongst the first in the world to have automatic sluice gates. The 3 kilometer long dam is located at the confluence of the rivers - Cauvery, Hemavati and Lakshmanathritha.The lake that is formed by the dam is one of the largest in India !The dam is a multipurpose project conceived by Sir M. Vishveswariah for supplying water to the agricultural lands of Mandya and Mysore districts and for ensuring power supply to the Shivanasamudra project.

The work on laying out these gardens was started in the year 1927 and completed in 1932.

The Brindavan Gardens, are rated as one of the most beautifully laid out terrace gardens in the world !
These gardens are enriched with a number of terraces, innumerable fountains in different shapes and sizes, decorated with coloured lighting, running and cascading waterchannels, water chutes, lush green lawns, flower beds, shrubs and trees and are famous for the illuminated dancing musical fountains that come to life after sunset.
All fountains run due to the water pressure from the dam.

The best time to visit the gardens is in the evening, after sunset, when all the bright colourful fountains come alive and the entire garden is transformed into a fairyland !

The whole environ seems ethereal and enchanting and is a sight to behold !

From this enchanting place we proceeded back to the hotel, looking forward for the next day’s trip to Chamundeshwari temple and St. Philomenas Church.

Note: The Brindavan gardens remain illuminated from 7.00 pm to 7.55 pm from Monday to Wednesday and from 7.00 pm to 8.55pm on Saturdays and Sundays. During Dusshera Festival, the garden is illuminated every day.

Palace of lights – Mysore

Festivity is synonymous with Mysore Dasshera, during which the city celebrates this festival for 10 days. One has to witness this mega festival of lights, dance and music and experience the grandeur of the royal palaces, the spectacular silks, the fragrance of sandalwood and the mouthwatering delicacies. According to the legend this festival is celebrated to mark the victory of Goddess Chamundeshwari of Chamundi Hill over the evil demon Mahishasura.

We were lucky to visit this grand city during Dussehra in September 2009.

The Amba Vilas Palace, which is the home to the Wodeyars was built in 1912. Marking the festive celebration, this palace is illuminated every evening, with 96,200 bulbs, which is indeed a visual treat ! The entire city too is brightly lit with numerous bulbs during this season.

This palace is considered one of the grandest palaces in the world and perhaps houses the most number of light bulbs too !

We visited this palace including the marriage pavilion (thrown open to public only during Dusshera) and were amazed and astounded by the grandeur of this magnificent abode.

Mysore city is rich in culture and heritage is famous for many other specialities too. Thus, Geographical Indicator (GI) status have been conferred on Mysore Silk, Mysore Agarbathi, Mysore beetle leaves, Mysore Sandal Oil, Mysore Sandal Soap, Mysore inlay work, Mysore paintings.

In the evening, we proceeded to visit the famous Brindavan gardens with grand memories of the royal city.

For more information visit: http://mysoretourism.org/
To be contd………

Experience Karnataka !

Would you like to experience: Variety, Heritage, Wildlife, Romance, Festivity, Divinity and More ?

The official Karnataka tourism website describes the state of Karnataka as: One state, Many worlds. Truly justified !

Recently, in September 2009, we spent four days on a coach trip, starting from Bangalore and explored and discovered the majesty, splendour and the magic of Karnataka !

We booked the three day Karnataka tourism department tour (KSTDC) which covered Mysore, Srirangapatna, Brindavan Gardens, Ooty, Coonoor, Doddabetta and Nanjungud. After completing this 3 day tour, we were so much enthused to discover more of the beautiful state that we booked the one day KSTDC tour covering Sravenbelagola, Halebid and Belur too.

Day 1 - Srirangapatna
On Day 1 at 7.30 am, we departed from the tourist office at Badami House, Bangalore and reached Srirangapatna, here we saw Tipu Sultan's summer palace, Daria Daulat Bagh, which houses a museum too. It is a completely wooded structure, made of teakwood and the structure stands on a raised platform which is around 1.5 meters in height. This stately artifact was constructed in the year 1784 and is situated on the banks of Cauvery river.

Timings of Museum : 9 am. to 5 pm
Admission fees : Rs.5/- per head and free on Fridays.

We then proceeded towards the Srirangapatna Fort. The ramparts of this fort signify the historic battles which were fought here. And the most significant battle was Tipu Sultan's struggle against the British. which ended in his death in 1799.
Within the fort is a mosque and the huge Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple which has an impressive gopuram and fort like walls. In this temple, Swami Ranganatha is depicted as reclining on the bed of Aadi Sesha, the serpant lord.
We then headed towards Mysore ….. to be continued ……

Note: For details about tour packages log on to: www.karnatakaholidays.net

World's Hottest Chilli !

Chillies or chilly powder are an indispensable ingredient in the preparation of Indian dishes and are used to render ‘hotness’ or pungency to a dish. How hot can a chilli be ? Only recently the Naga Jolokia, originating in the Assam region of northeastern India, was officially recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s hottest chilli measuring at over 1,000,000 Scoville Units (SCH)
This chilli is also grown in the states of Nagaland and Manipur in India.

What is in a name ? The Naga Jolokia was so named after the Naga Warriors who once inhabited Nagaland in northeast India, who were renowned for being very ferocious.Thus it is also called Bih Jolokia (Bih = 'poison', Jolokia = 'chilli pepper) or Bhut Jolokia (Bhut = 'ghost', probably due to its ghostly bite)

Whew ! It seems that this chilli has enough heat to make a volcano explode ! How does one measure the hotness of a chilli (pepper) ? The Scoville scale is a measure of the 'hotness' of a chilli pepper or anything derived from chilli peppers, i.e. hot sauce. The scale is actually a measure of the concentration of the chemical compound capsaicin which is the active component that produces the heat sensation for humans.

Measuring pepper hotness: The scale or test is named after Wilbur L. Scoville, who developed the Scoville Organoleptic Test in 1912 while working at the Parke Davis pharmaceutical company. As originally devised, a solution of the pepper extract is diluted in sugar water until the 'heat' is no longer detectable to a panel of (usually five) tasters; the degree of dilution gives its measure on the Scoville scale.
The greatest weakness of the Scoville Organoleptic Test is its imprecision, because it relies on human subjectivity.
Of late, capsaicin concentrations are determined using more scientific methods, like High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) This method directly measure the amount of capsaicin and provides much more accurate results than sensory methods.

HOT OR NOT: The chilli hotness scale, depicted in Scoville Heat Units
Pure capsaicin: 15 million to 16 million (Hottest)
Naga-Bih Jolokia pepper: 1,001,304
Dorset Naga: 923,000
Red Savina habanero: 577,000
Scotch bonnet: 100,000-325,000
Jamaican hot pepper: 100,000-200,000
Cayenne pepper: 30,000-50,000
Jalapeno pepper: 2,500-8,000
Pimento: 100 to 500
Bell pepper: 0 (Mildest)
Only pure capsaicin - the active heat ingredient in chillis - measures higher on the Scoville scale.

As a healing agent:
Since ancient times, chillies, have been used by healers to cure a variety of ailments. They have been used externally to relieve pain and internally to cure many ailments and some of its medicinal properties are listed below:
 Stimulant
 Tonic
 Sialagogue - Promotes the flow of saliva
 Alterative Facilitates a beneficial change in the body - to help the body's drive to restore itself to normal health
 Rubefacient Reddens the skin by increasing the circulation when rubbed onto the surface
 Carminative - Prevents gas forming in the intestines and also assists in expelling it
 Anticoagulant - Helps prevent the formation of blood clots which can cause heart attacks and strokes
 Digestive
Capsaicin ointments have been found to relieve the pain of arthritis and shingles when applied externally, and, taken internally, capsaicin triggers the release of endorphins in the brain, which has a pain relieving effect similar to that of morphine.

Nutritional facts: A single pepper has been found to contain a full day's supply of beta carotene and nearly twice the recommended daily allowance for vitamin C, which makes the chilli an invaluable food in the fight against cancer and heart disease. Chillies may also help in weight loss by speeding up the metabolism !

So, are you ready to take the ghostly poison bite ?