 |
|
REGAL: Mysore Palace PIC/NICOLE JONES |
And so we went with visions of golden palaces and painted elephants; we found that we couldn't really see anything through the crowds.
We arrived in Mysore on Wednesday, a whole day before the parade with the anxiously awaited elephants. A whole day to explore the city and to tour the palace and see it illuminated that night. The only problem was that about 100,000 other people had the same exact plan. And they were a lot pushier than us.
The line to enter the palace that afternoon snaked around the grounds and down the street for a kilometre.
We paid our entrance fee and were swept inside, literally by the force of the other moving people. The security guards weren't even paying attention to the metal detectors. Men were shoving and pushing through five at a time, a fact that seemed to me to defeat the entire purpose of having people walk through them at all.
But this was only a preview for that night and the next day. Later that evening, we made our way to the Main Gate just before they were supposed to open for the lighting of the palace. We could see other people who had come in through the other gate on time, but the security guards, very stylishly wearing cowboy hats and berets, just languished feet from the opening, teasing the crowd. For over half an hour they just stood there, approaching the gate and then retreating, working the crowd into a frenzy. Bodies were being pushed into the metal bars, limbs were reaching through to the other side for some relief from the crushing of bodies against each other.
Finally, a guard approached and announced that the hundreds of people, who were quite literally smashed against the gate, would all have to form a single file line, a task that was impossible at this point, with the desperation to get in. It would not have been impossible had the guards, who had been standing by for hours, told the crowd to line up as it formed. But I suppose that would have made too much sense, and now, they would get to use their bamboo sticks.
Somehow we made it through, and without warning, the lights came on. The crowd stopped pushing and gasped. It was beautiful.
Almost beautiful enough to forget what we had just gone through, but it happened again the next day at the procession. We lined up to watch the parade with thousands of other people. But the parade was over two hours late, and the crowd pushed over and stood on top of a barrier. Again, the security guards started swinging their bamboo sticks, and I was afraid that we were all going to be trampled. We left without even getting to see the elephants.
