Dasara Flower Show

Dasara Flower Show

Another favourite rendevouz for locals and tourists alike, aside from the Palace and the Exhibition, during the Dasara festival, is the Horticultural Show at Curzon Park. Do we know that the first of the Mysore Flower Shows was organized 90 years back? It was opened by HH Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV on August 15, 1914. This is what he spoke on that occasion:"It has given me great pleasure to listen to Mr.Krumbiegel's address and I hope that many of you will be impressed by the eloquent appeal which he has made to you to cultivate the hobby of gardening. I feel sure that Mr.Krumbiegel's enthusiasm and artistic taste will make our Mysore Flower Shows as beautiful and attractive as those which he arranges at the Lal Bagh in Bangalore."The Flower Show which I am now opening is the first of its kind that has been held in the City of Mysore and I hope that it will become a regular institution. No one who knows the Cities of Bangalore and Mysore can help noticing the great dearth of gardens in Mysore and there is really no reason for such a state of things. The soil and rainfall of the two places are very similar and I can only hope that the institution of this Flower Show will encourage house-owners here to beautify their homes by cultivating private gardens.... I appeal to the people of this city to try and emulate Bangalore and convert Mysore into a garden city. I now declare this Show to be open".In fact, Mysore WAS a garden city for a few decades hence. Those who have been bitten by the 'gardening bug' will nod that "gardening is the purest of human pleasures, the greatest refreshment to the spirit of man", as Lord Bacon said. Green is important to life on Earth and soothing to the eyes. A green, clean and calm Mysore was what our revered Maharajas intended and strove for. Let us be reminded of their good deeds. The Flower Show is one of them.

[My letter in Star of Mysore, 2006]