Sunday 9th February - Mysore Magic

Where are the trains, we hear you plead. Your wait has not been in vain. Today is two train day to make up for the recent scarcity. After breakfast we sort ourselves out for a longish day trip to Mysore. We stayed there five years back but missed something that we wanted to see, hence the return visit. Research revealed that there are several trains between Bangalore and Mysore including the Malgudi Express. Last night D finished reading 'The Vendor of Sweets' , one of R. K. Narayan's stories based in the fictional Indian town of Malgudi. Unfortunately the timings just do not work for us and we opt for the Chennai - Mysore Shatabdi, giving us chance to travel in Anubhuti class, even more expensive than  Executive Chair class. The train number is 12007.

Our metro trip to Bangalore KSR Station is faultless although even on a Sunday morning there are no seats to be had. There is a long walk via passages and a skywalk from the Metro platform to the Railway Station. Even here in hi-tech Bangalore the ticket vending machine has a minder who presses the buttons and collects the cash. Train 12007 is up on the screens for Platform 7. R is parked up on a shady bench with the bag while D goes to find where our coach will pull up. The indicator code for Anubhuti class is K. K1 turns out to be as far away from the stairs we descended as possible. A few minutes before eleven the incoming train is announced.

The Anubhuti coach has a distinctive set of badges which mean that it stands out from the rest of the train. Quite a lot of people get off but there are a few besides ourselves waiting to join. It is a few years since we travelled Executive Chair class but our first reaction inside is what's the difference? We have been allocated the forward facing pair at the big table in the middle of the coach, on the shady side. There are newspapers and water bottles cluttering the table but an attendant soon tidies things up. Then we realise what is different. There are TV screens sunk into the table, one for each seat, that rise when you press on the top.

Otherwise it is the familiar mix of grubby and battered but with a bit more space. D elevates his screen and presses the on button. A screen appears with an Indian Railways logo, then another with a clock in the top left corner that says Friday 05.30. A dialogue box appears mid screen saying "Loadinggg. Please wait."  Fifteen minutes later it is still loadinggg so it is consigned to the pit below the table. How does one file a TDR to claim a partial refund for the mental anguish caused?

The attendant appears with complimentary bottles of 'Rail Neer', the house brand mineral water. He is hardly overworked as there are only a dozen people in the 56 seater coach. Once we get out of greater Bangalore speed picks up and we make good progress. The Rail Neer has a new slogan on the back of the bottle. "Get Food on your Train Seat". No thanks. Next up is breakfast. We are not expecting this. A foil carton of rice and veg, seasoned with turmeric and cardoman, with a tub of curd, a sachet of pickle and a small, sweet, chewy donut type sweet. No tea! 

We have heard reports that Indian Railways are now deploying electronic TTEs, using tablets rather than reams of computer printout paper. Frankly we considered this idea to be so far fetched that we dismissed it out of hand. Imagine our amazement when our very own TTE turns up with such a device. The romance of Indian Railways is evaporating in front of our very eyes.

We are almost caught out by arrival at Mysore because a) the train is on time and b) the staff do not appear with the tips basket, something we have seen on every Shatabdi trip we have done until now. On the way of the train we see that the staff have 'No Tips Please' badges sewn onto their shirts. We negotiate the forecourt full of auto drivers and head into town on foot. R forgot to pick up her Kindle so we head first to a bookshop where they have an extensive selection of  Past Railway Exam Papers but nothing that R wants to read and is prepared to carry around.

We know the Modern Cafe from last time. It is busy but they fit us in for glasses of black tea, no sugar. Next we head for Devaraja, the Central market. This is a splendid place, full of colour and characters. R invests in a set of coloured powders but turns down oils, perfumes, incense sticks and other pleasures of the flesh. D blows Rs20 on a pack of cotton wicks, suitable for oil lamps and small tin can boats. We do attract one hawker who tries to sell us wooden puzzles and who takes the hump when we decline. He follows us, accusing us of only giving money to big corporations and not buying in local markets. If local markets did stylish, quality loungewear like Big Bazaar we would be first in the queue.

One of the Mysore sights that we missed five years ago was the Jaganmohan Palace Art Gallery. The blurb outside promises the finest art in India, a claim that we intend to hold them to. It is a shoes off, no photos place with audio guides that just do not synchronise with the numbers displayed around the gallery. Some of the pictures look like photographs of faces pasted onto other bodies. In some of the galleries the light is so bad that all you can see is reflections of the pictures on the opposite wall. Maybe one for the connoisseur.

D decides that a beer has been earned and knows just the place. The Park Lane has a first floor terrace that is home to a restaurant/beer garden. We order beer and peanuts while perusing the menu. Supper is spring rolls and onion pakoda, followed by egg biryani straight out of a 1980s Carling Black Label advertisement.

The Park Lane is also well placed for the big deal that has brought us to Mysore. We ignore the auto drivers who try to tell us that we are going the wrong way and walk 300 yards to the East Gate of the Mysore Palace. We arrive just in time to see the whole frontage lit up by 90,000 bulbs. The immediate effect was breathtaking and it made our outing well worthwhile. The lights stay on for thirty minutes or until the meter runs out. We got the photos, walked around the perimeter to the South Gate for a different view, then took an auto back to the station.

Train 16022, Kaveri Express, starts at Mysore and was sitting in the platform waiting. We are in 2AC and have been granted an inside lower and the side lower in the same bay. The train is not busy as we leave, one minute late, and we can spread out and get on with blogging. The TTE on this train has proper paper charts. If anything else exciting happens on this trip it will be in tomorrow's blog.