Desara Festival and other stuff...

Last week Mysore celebrated the Desara Festival which lasted about 10 days. As well as organised events such as an elephant parade, a torchlight procession and various music and dance events, people decorated their vehicles, got dressed up in their best clothes and seemed to have a lot of fun. It's the biggest festival in the Mysore calendar, even bigger than Diwali.

The Whitehouse was given a new look, decorated with banana leaves and a pattern on the pavement drawn with chalk.

People smash water melons on their threshold as offerings to the Goddess.

Some tough kids from the slum down the road from where I live.

A detail from the entrance to the cemetry.

The banana leaf seller:

Diana: "So. Two chillis and a lime?" (imagine an American intonation- she cracks me up).

The street sweepers of Gokulum performing puja for the festival.

Even Doctor Ramesh was celebrating!

I'm not sure what this guy was selling but I like his little stall.

Scrawny horses pull these beautifully decorated carts.

In the middle of Gokulum, next to a western style ice cram parlour, there is a street dairy- loads of cows milling around sometimes getting milked.

Some tipsy rickshaw drivers celebrating the festival.

The sugar cane juice sellers performing puja in front of their stall:There were some lovely flower displays around the lake:

More signs:

Wrong!

No thanks!

I'll say!