Dasara from today

Poet K S Nisar Ahmed of Nityotsava will inaugurate the 407th edition of world famous Mysuru Dasara atop Chamundi Hill at 8.45 am on Thursday.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and a host of his Cabinet colleagues, including PWD Minister H C Mahadevappa, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait and Women and Child Development Minister Umashree, will be present.

Priest of Chamundeshwari temple Shashishekar Dixit told DH that a traditional puja will be offered to the Panchaloha idol of Goddess Chamudeshwari to mark the beginning of Navaratri. Nisar Ahmed, the chief minister and other dignitaries will perform ‘Pushparchane’ to the idol to inaugurate Dasara, he added.

A host of Dasara-related activities like wrestling, film festival, women Dasara, art exhibitions and camps, flower show, state-level sports meet, book expo cum sales, Dasara illumination, exhibition, food mela, women entrepreneur and women self-help groups products exhibition, and sales mela, and cultural programmes at several venues will commence on Thursday.

The Khasa (private) Durbar by Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, the scion of the erstwhile royal family, will be held between 12.45 pm and 12.55 pm at Mysore Palace.

Meanwhile, vocalist A Rajamma of Chikkamagaluru has been selected for ‘Rajya Sangeetha Vidwan’ award.

CM’s first Dasara
The Maharaja of Mysore is passing by...greet him with folded hands, the father told his son. But the boy, all of 7, could see nothing through the crowd. The boy was Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Siddaramaiah reminisced the first time he witnessed the Dasara grandeur as he took a trip down memory lane in a radio interview on Akashvani on Wednesday.

“I was with my father waiting for the Dasara procession to arrive near the Bamboo Bazar near the Banni Mantapa. I was eager to see the Maharaja,” Siddaramaiah said. “When I told my father I wasn’t able to see, he held me up on his shoulders. This scene is still alive in my eyes,” he said.

“I participated in the Dasara procession as a high school student, as a NCC cadet, as a legislator and as minister. Now, I’m happy to be a part of Dasara as chief minister,” he said.