Manjusha car museum

At about 11:25 pm, in the scorching heat, we went to the Manjusha Car museum, a 5-minute walk from the lodge. The ticket for entry costs only 3 rupees. There was about 50 very old cars there – some absolutely splendid having a touch of royalty in all of them. Here are a few cars that I saw there:

· Adler
· Jaguar
· Standard Bell (England)
· Volkswagen (Germany)
· Plymouth (USA)
· Rolls Royce (England)
· Fire Brigade (England)
· Daimler Mercedes Benz (Germany – 1926)
· Nash (USA – 1928)
· Fiat (Italy – 1931)
· Vauxhall (England – 1929)
· Buick 8 (USA – 1937)
· Chevrolet (USA – 1947)
· Renault (France – 1903)
· Lincoln (USA – 1938)
· Desoto (USA – 1949)
· Frazer Pontiac (USA – 1952)
· Packard (USA – 1946)
· Cadillac (USA – 1954)
· Ford car (USA – 1951)
· Morris minor (England – 1948)
· Mercedes Benz (Germany – 1948).
· Ford jeep (USA – 1957)

Apart from these cars there were other items as well:

There were two huge whale jaws at the entrance. They were about 12 feet high

Some General Knowledge about cars like – The first person to own a car in India was Foster of Crompton Greaves in 1897, the First Indian to own a car was Jamshedji Tata in 1901, the longest NH in India is the NH 7 between Varanasi and Kannyakumari (2,325 kms.)

There were ‘bullock carts’ used to carry ‘Kshatriyas’ in Tamil Nadu

There were statues of lions and peacocks

There was a ‘parachute-folding bike’ that was used by skydivers, who used to jump from the planes, sitting on those bikes

There were models of ‘Titanic’, ‘OVR Titanic’ ships

There was also a Fordson Tractor with a crane (USA – 1915)

There was a Hindustan Trainer Aircraft

We left the museum at about 12:00 pm. There were two huge elephants standing near the museum. We took a few snaps of ourselves along with the elephant. Mahesh met a friend there. From there, we went to a park – Lalithodhyana. The park had nothing special in it. There were statues of various Gods like Ganesha, Nataraja kept behind glass showcases. Then there was a small aquarium that had a few fishes like Gouramis, Swordfishes and tiger fishes. We were out by 12:30 pm. The sun made us dizzy and tired, so we decided to spend the afternoon in the ‘cool’ lodge.

The lodge was really cool for the following reasons – there was no power, so no fan; we were in the topmost floor with a sheet above us; there was no water to drink; all I had was a few chocolates with me. We had a nice sleep, with doors open, and our luggages all thrown over. It was 1 pm. We had a bath again. Now, we were getting hot water. We had a few snacks. Mahesh had a nap again. But, I went on roaming around the lodge, which was filled with many photographs. One photo showed the picture of nearly 3000 women getting saris from Virendra Heggade in 1981. There were some abstract paintings and some artwork using glass pieces or bamboo sticks.

At about 3:15 pm (when our stomachs began growling again), we decided to have a snack or something. But first, we went to the bus stand for inquiring about a bus to Bangalore. A deluxe bus was scheduled to leave at 10:30 pm. Then, we had idly-vada at Akshaya, and returned to the lodge, as it was still very hot. We saw our weights in that ‘luck machine’ we find in ‘Majestic’. I was 57 kgs, and Mahesh was 65.5. We also did some shopping for my friends in college who wanted those ‘black threads’, and some dry fruits, sweets etc. We rested for another while at the lodge, had a good sleep, went to the toilet and walked around.