SMITH AND THE FAMILY

Greeting! Hope you all enjoyed last week’s article “Tuskers on training for the big day”. While I was working for this article I had to visit places in Mysore; adventitiously I made a visit to a restaurant ‘^Le OLIVE GARDEN’ Mysore. I met a strange family there which exhilarated me to write this article. So, come and join me as I introduce you to ‘Smith and the family’. 

Le Olive garden in day and night view

‘^Le OLIVE GARDEN’ Mysore is one of the finest multi-cuisine restaurants in the city. The restaurant is hedged within the hotel “Windflower Resorts & Spa” next to Jayachamraja Golf club Chamundipuram Mysore. The resort is situated near the foothills of Chamundi Hills encompassed with the flora of Mysore. Tall trees on the roadside sunshade the resort and reduce the atmospheric temperature by 2-3⁰C when compared with the city temperature. Inside the resort premises a very peaceful and calm atmosphere is maintained. Different ornamental plants are grown all over the lawns to spruce up the sights.

Tulips, bottle brush, bougainvillea, Singapore daisy, grasses, palms, euphorbia varieties and other plants are grown. 

It has a long pond with coconut trees bordering it.

 A beautiful private pool is made just for the hotel guests

A small pond with a statue of Gowthama Buddha. 

The restaurant serves tasty Mughali dishes; I just love to eat chicken at the Olive garden. Matkha murgh is my favourite dish. 

A peculiar blend of pineapple and yoghurt raitha is served with parathas which simply melts in your mouth. There are exciting vegetarian dishes, desserts, mocktails and cocktails which you would love to relish. 

And I can’t miss to introduce “Miss Rosy” before the ‘Smith and the family’.A yellow crested cockatoo bought from Australia. She likes to say ‘HELLO’ to her guests, becomes possessive if we say ‘we will take your food off’ and sits on your shoulder if you are comfortable to her and never easily gets off. She likes to have green chillies, grains and nuts. 

A fountain at the entrance of the restaurant. The restaurant is encircled by a narrow pool where the ‘family of smiths’ are displayed. The smith and the family is the family of bar-headed geese. 

15 years back two pairs of geese were bought from Chennai and now the family has increased its number to 21. 

Bar-headed geese (Anser indicus) are the migratory birds which visit India during breeding season. December to February is the peak time for them to breed. Every year thousands of geese visit the water bodies in and around Mysore. It is one of the ground nesting birds. In 2017, winter more than 2,500 bar-headed geese were found in the Haadinaru Lake according to Times of India (Nanjangud, Mysore outskirts).

Hence the Mysore climate is suitable for the migratory birds like bar-headed geese. In the present case, these birds are fed with rice, ragi, jowar and other cereals. During the day time they are allowed to forage in the open space. Evening time they are brought to the restaurant pool for the display. 

Sometimes flat bread is administered to geese. 

Recently a hotel guest has gifted a pair of mallard. 

From 2-3 days a pair of turkey has also started living with the geese. 

In short the Smith and the family are the happy family attracting the guests of the restaurants. They greet all their visitors with soft honking voice.

Next time if you are in Mysore and want to have a delicious dinner and a cool home stay then don’t forget to check in the “Windflower Resort & Spa”.

Acknowledgement:

I extend my gratitude to General Manager and staff members of “Windflower Resort & Spa” for their great ambience during my visits.