Ashwin Upadhyaya's Blog » Events

Royal Mysore Walks

Ashwin Upadhyaya — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:43:59 +0000

What is the connection between Mysore and Dan Brown’s favorite secret society? How did the Maharajas of Mysore plan the city? Why does NASA, in its Virginia facility have a painting of Tipu and his soldiers of the war at Srirangapatna? These and hundreds of interesting facts plus an energetic presentation by Vinay plus a morning walk at the pleasant city of Mysore make up the experience called Royal Mysore Walks.

The walk starts at 7AM in the morning at town hall. You walk by century old cast iron street lights imported from London, then walk by the clock tower of Mysore and admire the mixture of architectural styles it encompasses, then get mesmerized by seeing unbelievable things (which until then I never even thought of in spite of being a Mysorean).

You then walk by a palace which still has a king, then walk through a 100 year old yet functioning market and visit some more landmarks. During the course of the walk, you get to eat what the Maharajas ate, you get to see whom the Maharajas worshipped and you get a sense of their far-sighted city planning too.

I have lived in this city for 25 years and yet I felt like I visited a totally different city during the walk. For a tourist to Mysore probably, this should be the first thing in his itinerary, for whatever he would do in the rest of the day could be seen from a whole new eye. The painting on the palace walls would now carry more meaning, the stone walls of the palace would now tell stories and stone inscriptions would now get you thinking.

About Vinay: He was a software engineer for a good number of years until his passion for history made him quit his job and start Royal Mysore Walks.

Towards the end of the trip, I saw an old house and started thinking if this could have some history as well. I was not sure if Vinay would have an answer for this because ‘who could know every single building in a city?’. Yet, I asked and here’s what I got: ‘Oh. This is the house of the owner of Freemasons lodge’. I was bowled over.

Report on Mysore Santhe

Ashwin Upadhyaya — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:07:59 +0000

Mysore Santhe started on January 10th, 2010 as an informal gathering of people who do not necessarily have anything in common. To know it better, be at the Rangayana open theater this Sunday any time between 11AM and 1PM (earlier held in Samvaada vana, Yuvaraja college). (See here for an earlier post). It is amazing to see how 7 Sundays can create many new things or at least ignite new ideas. Here is a list of some of the outcomes from my perspective:

Mysore Chitrasanthe/Kalasanthe – A fixed location in Mysore would host artists of all kinds on a weekly basis. Being a weekly, it has the potential of creating a cultural change. (I had blogged this earlier here).
Startuppers: A sub-network of entrepreneurs/wannabe-entrepreneurs was formed and this has resulted in a great deal of motivation for ourselves.
An Events calendar: Mysore being a tourist destination and a place with daily cultural activities still does not provide updated information on the events to visiting tourists. A weekly product such as this should be of great value to tourists and could be a good sell at the hotels and restaurants of Mysore.
The Mysore Santhe idea itself: Is instrumental in helping many of us meet interesting people whom we otherwise wouldn’t have possibly met.

From my experience, not all ideas necessarily succeed. Yet, the higher the number of ideas, higher the chance of at least a few of them succeeding. This is where Mysore Santhe is making the difference. Apart from creating ideas, the other great advantage of such a gathering is the spreading of information. Another list on interesting initiatives here:

Divyadeepa Trust: Started in 1992 with a mission of providing value based quality education to rural and underprivileged children. Many of the Santhe enthusiasts are active volunteers at Divyadeepa.
Mysore Grahakara Parishat: I think everyone in Mysore knows about this organization. It is an organization into consumer, civic, environmental activism among others. Some of the Santhe enthusiasts are active volunteers at MGP.
Kukkarahalli nature walk: This is a free walk around Kukkarahalli lake conducted on the first Sunday of every month (7AM) by environmentalists, professional bird-watchers etc. Although I am yet to attend one of these, it seems to me like an interesting walk.
Royal Mysore Walks: Walk tours in Mysore by Vinay. This week, I am going on an invitational walk with him. I will write more on this after that.

I definitely have missed many more initiatives here which we come across at Mysore Santhe. Every time I have been there, I have found at least one new and innovative idea/initiative at the Santhe.

Above all, the event is more about the people. If you want to learn from others’ experiences and others’ mistakes, these are the kind of gatherings you want to be.

Be a Wangdu!

Ashwin Upadhyaya — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:58:06 +0000

Rajesh Hanbal used to work at a reputed software firm in Bangalore. He has quit his job and is dedicated towards preparations for the Indian Administrative Service.
Ashwin Krishna also used to work at a software firm in Bangalore. He has quit to achieve his dreams. His aim is to create a world-class university.
Vinay Parameswarappa, another ex-software engineer conducts walk tours in Mysore and gives you an experience of true places which are not in any map.
Rakshit plans to quit his software job and get into music production.
Prashanth is director at an internet solution company.
Justin is an American who is passionate about Mysore and works hard to make civic problems known.
Sourabh, again an ex-software engineer runs a book club and is into event management.
Suraj and Anil and I run a company into renewable energy power plants (1).

I had written about Mysore Santhe in my last post. That is where I met many of the people I mentioned now. We had many more people like GV Krishnan (2), Krishnavattam, Bapu Sathyanarayana, ER Ramachandran and Javeed Nayeem who write for the print media and Anantaramaiah who runs a school in Mysore.

I guess you liked Phunsuk Wangdu on screen. Mysore Santhe is a place to meet such Wangdus. And probably get inspired enough to become a Wangdu yourself.

Added this line after comments from readers
It was G V Krishnan who initiated this idea of Mysore Santhe

Spread that Idea!

Ashwin Upadhyaya — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:01:54 +0000

Imagine a place where artists, entrepreneurs, engineers, journalists and people from various streams come together with just one agenda: To let ideas flow. That is the kind of place we want “Mysore Santhe” to be. And for it to be a success, you need to be there too. Just walk into Samvaada vana at Yuvaraja campus, Mysore on any Sunday anytime between 11AM and 1PM. The first one will be on 10th January, 2010.

The initial plan was to create something similar to speaker’s corner (in Hyde park, London) or may be something similar to Coffee house at college street or may be an Algonquin round table. However, there are no set rules as to how Mysore santhe should evolve. The place belongs to you, the visitors to this place and it may become anything that you want it to be.

Read more about Mysore Santhe at Ashwin Krishna’s blog.

In case you need to know more, feel free to contact me (9900199201) or Ashwin Krishna (9886165220).

TIE CleanTech Conference Hyderabad – 17th Dec, 2009

Ashwin Upadhyaya — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:42:37 +0000

It was already 10AM and I had to catch the 12PM train from Mysore if I were to reach Hyderabad for the TIE cleantech conference which I had decided to attend just minutes earlier. A flight was possible but taking that when you have a cheaper option is out of question in a startup.
8AM next day, I was having breakfast at Hyderabad for the first time. A 5 year old American Desi child explaining her grandfather that it is ‘healthy’ and not ‘hyealdhy’ meant I was not too far from Bangalore. An hour later and after a bad episode with an autorickshaw, I was at the Marriott. As I entered the conference hall lounge, I started hearing people talk my language, the green language. This was the place I belonged.
In a world which talked of financial, climate and political crises, here was a micro world which talked only of the good things. The sun, the wind, the water, energy and of course the money in all of these. This was a world of hope.
One speaker talked of the 15 years he struggled with his solar product and how he subsequently became the market leader. Another tried to sell an electric scooter 25 years ago, failed, went away from India for a couple of decades, came back a few years ago, tried to sell the same again and succeeded superbly this time. Another started his cleantech business for the love of environment. Yet another started for the money in it.
Environment, Entrepreneurship and Money, all in one place. 40+ speakers and 15+ new contacts in one day and I was still looking for more. Unfortunately, time didn’t seem to be so green.
With more than 3 hours remaining for the train, I hired an autorickshaw and traveled Hyderabad. Hussain Sagar, Charminar, Karachi bakery and PullaReddy sweets later, I sat at the railway station Coffee Day looking at my 9 o’clock train writing this travelogue.