Sea of crowd throng Lalbagh flower show

Large crowd is coming to see the flower show at Lalbagh On Sunday alone a total of 38,781 visitors arrived and the gate collection was Rs 24.48 lakh  3.50 lakh roses used to create replica of Kuvempu's house Fresh flowers replace every 4th day 

'Rashtrakavi' Kuvempu is a magic name that can attract Kannadigas any time. The Lalbagh flower show this year is paying tribute to Kuvempu for 50^th year of his being conferred with the Jnanapith award by creating his house in Kuppalli in Shivamogga district. The entire theme of the flower show is Kuvempu, with his photo gallery, documentaries, lines from his poems put up are a huge hit with the public. Large crowd is coming to see the show and on Sunday alone a total of 38,781 visitors, including 6,084 children arrived and the gate collection was Rs 24.48 lakh, reports Kannada Prabha.

The Horticulture Department officials said in three days over 80,000 people visited with the gate collection crossing Rs 36.3 lakh. Over 3.50 lakh roses have been used to create a replica of Kuvempu’s house. Water is sprinkled daily but the flowers wither away after three days. Hence on Sunday night and the next morning flowers are removed and fresh flowers are assembled. Again on August 11 and 12 fresh flowers are added, said Dr M Jagadish of Horticulture Department.

On Saturday, a programme of poetry reading and singing organised by the Karnataka Sahitya Academy attracted huge crowd. The programme was presided by Nadoja Nisar Ahmed. He stayed till 10 pm along with his family and was thrilled to see the Kuvempu house in flowers and the 3-D Jog falls.

Kuvempu’s daughter-in-law and late Poornachandra Tejaswi's wife Rajeshwari visited the show along with her daughter Sushmitha and was stunned to see the replica of their house in flowers and stayed for a long time. Next day vice-president Hamid Ansari’s wife Salma Ansari too visited the show. A surprise guest at the flower show to see the Kuvempu theme was author Devanuru Mahadeva. From Monday to Friday school students coming in batches are provided free entry. Adults have to buy tickets at Rs 50 and children Rs 20.