An evening in the Heritage City (Mysore) - Wax Museum & Dasara Exhibition

Idols in Wax Museum

Location:
Mysore District
Karnataka State

Distance:
Bangalore to Mysore - 140 Kms
Mandya to Mysore - 47 Kms

Route:
Bangalore - Kengeri - Bidadi - Ramanagar - Channapatna - Maddur - Mandya - Srirangapattana - Mysore

Estimated Time Travel:
Four Hours from Bangalore
One Hour from Mandya

Best Time to Visit:
Wax Museum - Any time during the Year
Dasara Exhibition - This goes live usually during October to December every year.

Stay:
Many good hotels are available in Mysore

I and my friend went to Mandya for an audit and the work got over for the day by afternoon. So, we planned to have some entertainment in Wax Museum and Dasara Exhibition in Mysore till night before continuing the work from next day. We got into the Mysore bus and it took about one hour for us to reach Mysore KSRTC Bus-stand. We hired an auto from here to Wax Museum at a cost of fifty rupees.

Wax Museum:

Wax Museum Entrance

In fifteen minutes we reached the Wax Museum and at the entrance of the museum, the statistics of the museum are displayed. This museum is named as Melody World as it consists of more than hundred life size statues and more than three hundred musical instruments. It is founded by Mr. Shreeji Bhaskaran as a tribute to the musicians all over the world.

There is a beautiful representation of musical instruments from stone age to the modern age. The various statues with musical instruments are displayed as set of bands on different stages. Jazz, Rock, Classical, Punjabi, Carnatic are some of the bands displayed.

Apart from the melody, there are various exhibits that gives social messages. Some of those exhibits include the harmful effects of drugs, growing differences between rich and poor etc.

Say No to Drugs

Gap between Rich and poor

The timings for the wax museum are 09:30 AM to 07:30 PM with an entrance fee of Rs. 30/-. We entered "Horror World" located in the same premises after we came out of the Wax museum. The Horror world is very dark inside with the idols of devils, skeletons and beasts. The sound and the light effects come live based on some sensors. So, when we move inside the Horror World, the movements in the idols along with the sounds and lights will get activated. It takes only five to ten minutes to see the Horror World.

With Superman & Karthik

With Santa & Sujay

Outside the Wax Museum, we took the pics with super hero "Superman" & "Santa" and took an auto to reach Mysore Dasara Exhibition.

Mysore Dasara Exhibition:

It was dark when we reached the Exhibition area and the view of the entrance covered with lights is spectacular.

Entrance to the exhibition

This place is opposite to the Mysore Palace and has an entrance fee of Rs. 20 per person. This tradition of having an exhibition during and after Dasara festival is started by Chamaraja Wodeyar in the year 1880 with the aim of introducing timely developments to the Mysore citizens. It is held every year and the responsibility of holding the same is entrusted to Karnataka Exhibition Authority.

Fountain in the exhibition

This exhibition attracts huge crowd every year on account of having various stalls of textiles, kitchenware, cosmetics, decorative items for home, plastic items etc. There are even few hotels inside which provide various types of foods including many types of snacks. To provide entertainment to the kids there is a play area with few rides like giant wheel etc. There are various stalls to display the various arts and handicrafts.

There is stall that displays Ilkal sarees which are manufactured in a small village Ilkal near Bagalkot.

Ilkal Sarees

Channapatna Toys

Vishnu Avatars in Ivory

Antique Items

Krishna Statue

Even many stalls erected by Department of tourism, Department of Information, Department of Agriculture etc. The various developmental projects taken up by the Government are displayed in the Information stall.

NEWS Stall

Karnataka Tourism Stall

Tourism Department

There is even a board displaying plants to which prayers are to be made by the people with their zodiac signs.

We did not knew that we have spent about three hours roaming there until we saw our watches and legs began to pain. We had different varieties of food in the food stalls and left to Mandya with a mixture of joy, happiness and tiredness.