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| Rains pour cold water over Dasara plans |
| BS Reporter / Chennai/ Mysore Sep 22, 2009, 00:17 IST |
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Heavy downpours threaten Dasara events across the city even as public apathy has left the organisers and the authorities frustrated and helpless.
The heavy downpour last evening flooded the roads and pushed cultural programmes at the palace into the interior Gombe Thotti, abandoning the colourful dais and hundreds of wet chairs for the second successive day. It upset the arrangements here and at some other centres. The colourful rangolis at important places were washed away.
Jaganmohan Palace, one of the nearly dozen cultural venues, saw nnot more than 30 persons in the large auditorium, with half of them being officials and policemen. Hindustani musician Pandit Madhav Gudi rendered his musical treat to practically an empty hall.
However, there were one or two bright spots where the audience response was good. The Yuva Dasara, a modern day cultural extravaganza for the youth, in particular, saw a good turnout. As the venue has temporary shelter for around 5,000 spectators, the huge crowds cheered and enjoyed the musical nite of Shreya Ghoshal, despite rain waters flooding the grounds and flowing underneath their slushy feet.
Another event that saw a good response was the two-day heritage walk. Around 150 people participated in the walk launched by district minister Shoba Karandlaje yesterday and interested 50 walked through the heart of the city this morning, learning about the architectural and historic past of 11 heritage structures on the way from the Rangacharlu Town Hall to Visvesvaraya Circle at Chamarajendra Technical Institute from deputy director of Heritage and Archives J V Gayathri and other guides.
The fact that there were no foreign visitors in the Mysore walk, unlike in the previous years, was indicative of the poor turnout of tourists for Dasara this year.
In addition to Yuva Dasara and heritage walk, some morning programmes like the Yoga demonstration in front of the palace by nearly 500 yoga enthusiasts were successful.
An impressive show as part of the conservation and development initiative of the Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage is the 10-day historic Dasara photographs exhibition in the Palace Bidadi Hall. Rare photos of four generations of the Mysore rulers, from Krishnaraja Wadiyar III to Jayachamaraja Wadiyar are among the 22 photographs on display.
Another commendable effort is to promote the ‘Mysore’ image by exhibiting nine items like ‘Mysore Pak’, Mysore’s famous sweet delicacy, betel leaves, sandal oil based items, silk, brinjal, Mysore painting and Mysore turban, and other unique and popular products from Mysore.
A few of these products have already received Geographical Indication Registry, while efforts are on to get the UNESCO tag for some intangible cultural events of Karnataka like the Mysore Dasara and ‘Mahamastakabhisheka’ or the anointing ceremony of Gomateswara at Sravanabelagola, Gayathri said.
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