September – October……. These months roll in with a lot of bustle in my city. The heritage city of Karnataka, Mysore! The “Nada Habba” or state festival of Karnataka is the world famous Mysuru Dasara.

The 10 days of Navratri are celebrated in different ways all over India, with Garba and fasting in Gujarat, Durgo Pujo in the East, Ram Leela in Delhi, Kolu in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. But Mysuru Dasara is different from all of these.

Mysuru Dasara in special in many different ways. Tourists from all over come to Mysuru. The erstwhile royal family of the Wodeyars play a pivotal role in the celebrations. The Mysuru Palace hosts the royal darbar with the young present king.

The preparations begin immediately after Vinayaka Chathurthi with the arrival of Dasara elephants. They are taken care of at the Mysuru palace with a lot of love and care. They are the main attraction in the procession of the final day, the Jamboo Savari, when the main elephant carries the Goddess Chamundeshwari in the golden howdah through the streets of Mysuru. This event is witnessed by lakhs of people lining up the roads. If you cannot find a good place on the road among the crowds, you are free to climb up the nearest tree and perch on your vantage point for a better view! 😀

Apart from the parade, there are many things to see and do during all the ten days of Dasara in Mysuru. Here are some of the events that are quite popular. It may not be an exhaustive one. It is limited by my knowledge.

City Lights: All the important roads and junctions are lit up with LED bulbs everyday. People come out in droves to see the lights. Here are a few photos of this year’s lightings. Every year, I drive through the city with my family to feast our eyes with all the dazzle and glow!

Flower Show, Yoga dasara, Food Mela, Exhibitions, Palace lightings, Concerts by eminent artists, Open air performances by Bollywood and Kannada stars, Air Shows, Paragliding, Helicopter rides, City tours, Doll displays, Torch lit parade, college festivals, literary events, Kids’ dasara, Wrestling matches, Vintage car racing, farmer’s events, art displays, Rangoli competions, the list goes on. One of the events this year was inaugurated by P V Sindhu.

My own celebrations include having a display of dolls at my home. This annual event is much looked forward to by my kids! They help me too. It is quite a big thing to bring out all the dolls, unwrap and arrange them all and then at the end of 10 days, packing and storing them back.

Here are a few pics of my kolu this year.

The highlight of my kolu is the colour rangoli that I and my daughter put, a different one every day!

Come see our Dasara celebrations…….

I’m participating in the monthly blog hop called #WordsMatter hosted by Corinne, ShaliniR  and Parul

This month the theme is “ It’s not that time of the year without… ”.

38 talented bloggers tag each other in turn to write on the theme. I pickup the blog hop from Shilpa Gupte who blogs at fictionandi.blogspot.com and I pass on my tag to Ruchi Nasa who blogs at thevagabond.me

Have fun reading. Follow the #WordsMatter on twitter, and blog hop away!