Monday, October 16, 2006

The Mysore Elephant Parade -- 2nd October


On the way down from Chamundi Hill, there's a Bull carved from a single piece of rock. There's a few of these around, but this one was pretty good... not that Daisy and I know too much as we stayed in the car with Raj whilst Leanne and Jyohti ran up to see it.


We dropped out of the hill into Mysore and into the throng. There were people everywhere, all tying to get to the best vantage point to see the elephant parade. The photo above shows coaches packed with people inside and on top. We felt very lucky to be in an airconditioned vehicle, even if Jyohti was always complaining that she could walk quicker.

Raj took us to a large roundabout close to the palace where we would get a good vantage point. We quickly realised that whilst there was no agression in the crowd, the sheer volume of people meant that crowding, pushing and uncontrolled surges were not uncommon. The police were there waving their sticks at people's heads, trying to get them to sit down but after getting caught in a couple of (quite terrifying) surges, we knew that we needed to find an alternative place to sit. In amongst the crowds, some enterprising folk had parked their small horse-drawn carts and were charging for people to it in and on them. We gladly paid 1,000 rupees (about £12) for the five of us (Leanne, Daisy, Jyothi, Raj and me) to take a seat. From the roof of the cart we were not only protected from the surging crowd, but were also able to see over the heads of the crowd. The carts were fairly rickety affairs and occasionally the horse would shift a little causing the cart to pitch backwards or forwards, but it was quite safe. As time wore on, the crowds deepened and people were going to great lengths to find a good vantage point. The photo below is of one of the trees to our right.


Most of the trees, signposts, radio masts, and so on were filled with men. After some time, the town rocked to the sound of cannon and the parade officially began! The elephants came at the start and at the end with about 20-30 floats in between. The elephants were exactly what you would imagine to see in India. Draped with bright fabrics and bejeweled spectactularly, they were the highlight of the day.


About half way through the parade, the heavens opened. I ducked down into the cart with Daisy, but everybody else sat up on the roof watching the procession. Raj made a rain hat out of a handkerchief and Leanne and Jyothi sheltered themselves somehow. The rain was warm and brief and it took us no time at all to dry out.
At one point, one of the trees nearby decided that it had too many people in its branches and promptly collapsed. Everybody in the vicinity ran to see what had happened. We stayed perched on our cart, but despite the mass of people running to the scene of the incident, there seemed to be no casualties.

Well, after all the floats and elephants had passed we made our way back to the car and headed towards the palace to see the last sight on our tour...
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