If you are still clueless on the various events that are yet to take place during the Dasara celebrations in Mysore, never fear, you can still catch up with the same by logging onto the official website, www.mysoredasara.com.
The website, as compared with last year’s version has certain new features besides, well organised and updated information. Minute details with regard to the heritage structures have also been added, such as the Palace, its construction cost among others.
With the new improved content and design, it is no wonder that the website gets a whopping figure of 3,92,264 hits everyday, most of which are from outside the country.
“The hits are mainly from United Kingdom, USA, Spain, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia and from within the country the maximum number of hits are from Bangalore, Hassan, Delhi, Mumbai and Kerala. This has been the trend from the past two weeks,” said Sanjay, proprietor of Software Guru, who also maintains the website. During the previous Dasara, the website had recorded a maximum of 2.5 lakh hits.
The website has all the information one may need to know on Dasara. This year, a lot of new services have been added. Firstly, it will broadcast main programmes for those who missed them. Details on these programmes have also been incorporated, he said. Aside of the information on accommodation, hotels, bus and train timings, gold cards among others, tourists will also be given a crash course of sorts in Kannada using words and sentences that are easily understood by even those who are not much familiar with it.
Another new feature of the site is the Frequently Asked Questions page, where information on whom to contact in case of emergencies, modes of transport, homestays, what to carry during the events, videography, seating arrangements, mobile phone services and the like have been given in easy question-answer format. Tourists may also access www.mysoretourism.org.
Further, something to interest the visual senses, a digital gallery has been added which consists of a video and photo library along with the details of illumination and so on and so forth. Interestingly, the website has been linked to the video site www.youtube.com. So, surfers searching for videos on Mysore Dasara are redirected to this website, said Sanjay. “We receive 20-50 lakh hits just from this feature,” he added.
This is not all, more plans in the offing include ‘Dasara Radio’, which will have voice recordings of Dasara greetings by the Deputy Commissioner, MCC Commissioner, Inspector General of Police and other officials, in addition to further information on the festival. This will be in English and Kannada. Programmes of All India Radio may also be broadcast on the website, once the necessary agreement is entered into.
In order to cater to the foreigners, the website has an automated translation facility, wherein all the online content will be translated into international languages such as French, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian. Services continued from the previous year include the virtual puja and the Dasara greetings, which have been hot favourites, along with the online photography contest for NRIs.
The website has been manned on a totally non-profit basis, in spite of all these features.
