Mysureans love Dasara. Not just for its pageantry, elephants and fireworks, but because it’s the only time of the year when our city gets a much-needed facelift.
Dasara is our Annual Civic Botox Session. Come October, our administration transforms into a cosmetologist, injecting quick Botox to beautify the city as best as possible.
Like a brigade of frantic beauticians for a bride, our administration goes to work on tourist areas of Mysuru by scrubbing roads, patching potholes, painting medians, relocating hawkers and dressing up Mysuru like a Bollywood bombshell.
The city sparkles with illumination. The main roads shimmer in the reflection of lights. There is order on the streets as the Police work overtime. But…
A few months later, like makeup that runs in the rain, the gloss wears off. Potholes reappear. Footpaths collapse. Street vendors reclaim their turf. And Mysuru slips back into its usual pre-festival muck of flex and chaos.
This makes us wonder what the state of Mysuru city would be if we didn’t have Dasara. Ugh! It is for this reason that Mysureans must push to make Dasara a bigger and grander festival while also making the city a destination for global events.
Cities that host major global events stay in a constant state of grooming. Clean-ups aren’t seasonal. Infrastructure is maintained, not patched. And best of all, tourism brings in clean, sustainable revenue, unlike heavy industry, which brings pollution and protest.
A Global Wellness Convention in Mysuru would be a good start. After all, India is becoming the biggest wellness destination.
The wellness tourism industry, which includes Yoga and Ayurveda, is now a 439-billion-dollar industry worldwide, and India is at the forefront with a growth rate of 22 percent.
And Mysuru, being a world-renowned Yoga Centre with numerous Spas and Ayurveda Colleges, is already at the cusp. All it needs is a little push in the form of a global convention, partly funded by the Government. This will do wonders for the city and its economy. But…
To do all this, you need an effective local administration and enthusiastic Corporators.
Unfortunately, while we often get enthusiastic Deputy Commissioners, the local leadership don’t support them. Add to this, a Deputy Commissioner’s workload and it seems impossible.
Many may recall our former DC, C. Shikha. A very efficient officer, who was burdened with heading 39 Committees!
Then came DC Abhiram G. Sankar, who had 35 Departments to run and was the Special Officer for 17 Dasara Sub-Committees!
Now, we have G. Lakshmikanth Reddy, … who holds the unfortunate record of heading 61 Committees!
Sixty-one! That’s right, from revenue collection to the Red Cross, from Poultry Fever Surveillance to Literacy Programmes, he oversees it all.
Apart from this, the DC is in charge of celebrations, from Ambedkar Jayanthi to Jagjivan Ram Jayanthi and of course from Republic Day to Dasara.
A DC has way too many hats to wear. He has to be an able administrator, an accounts manager, a project inspector, an usher when VIPs visit and an ‘inaugurator’ — after all, today every occasion calls for a chief guest from college fest to a lit fest.
Apart from this, he should also be a psychologist so he can gently pacify angry Pourakarmikas to keep the city clean.
Then he has to be a ‘special masseuse’ as he has to massage the ego of politicians.
He also has to be a monk, as he needs to have patience in abundance to handle the audacity and demands of politicians’ chelas.
As if all this wasn’t enough, the DC has to metamorphose into an event manager when Dasara arrives!
He has to coordinate between the Food Committee and the Hygiene Committee. He has to flag off elephants and approve decoration for the city.
When this is the workload, how can a DC do justice to his or her district?
Speaking of workload, at this rate, one day if the Dasara elephants fall sick, we shouldn’t be surprised if a DC is asked to carry THE load — Golden Howdah on his own back!
And let’s not forget: If everything goes well, politicians hog the credit. If it doesn’t, the DC gets transferred.
Expecting one person to manage an entire district while also organising a global event is unrealistic, even cruel.
That’s why the demand by former Mysuru Mayors for a Permanent Karnataka Dasara Authority deserves serious consideration.
Sure, their motivations may involve post-Mayor perks — but the idea is sound. A dedicated, semi-autonomous Dasara Authority — modelled after Karnataka Exhibition Authority — could professionalise the process.
And why not go a step further? Appoint a lean team of committed professionals and outsource operations to an experienced event management firm. That’s how global events are run.
It’s time we stopped treating Dasara like a village fair and started managing it like the world-class spectacle it could be.
To Mysureans, Dasara is more than tradition. It’s our annual adrenaline shot, a time when the city wakes up, cleans up and shows up. It brings us light, colour, tourists, business, and for a fleeting moment… some pride.
The Government must build Mysuru beyond the 30-day Dasara sparkle. We need a Mysuru that glows year-round. A city that functions not because it’s being watched, but because it wants to shine. The CM is from our city. Let’s hope he makes it shine.
e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com
This post was published on August 2, 2025 6:05 pm