Though a member of the Wodeyar royal family, she was always encouraged to interact with ordinary people in school, on the street and at the palace. Born during the independence period, she grew up at the Mysore palace with her sisters Gayathri, Kamakshi, Indrakshi, Vishalakshi and her brother, the present scion of the family, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar. Meenakshi was taught in a separate school inside the palace where children of the maharaja's staff were also studying. Later she joined the Maharani's College where she happily mingled with girls from all stratas of society.

The Mysore Dasara was an event that the prince and princesses eagerly awaited. Meenakshi recalls how as the day approached there would be a flurry of activity in the palace premises- preparing the deities for pooja, cleaning the palace premises, the decoration of the dolls for Bombe pooja, erecting the wrestling akaada. On the day of Mahalaya Amavasya, the auspicious new moon day, the actual festival began with a puja of the goddess in the temple atop the Chamundi hills. Inside the palace, the Maharaja would initiate rituals leading to the last day of festivities.

"The glory of the yesteryear Dasara cannot be described in words. The Dasara now and the festival then are incomparable and it was totally different. Only people who have witnessed it can understand and feel the difference", says the princess. The pomp and glory of the bygone days have been caught by her camera. The princess is a keen wildlife photography enthusiast. This interest was nurtured at a very young age when she was taken on the Maharaja's hunting parties.

The palace was her home till the 1970's and then she married and left for her husband's home. Nonetheless, every year she and her family return to Mysore to take part in the Dasara celebrations with the other members of the royalty. To the ordinary people in Mysore, she is still their princess. She is deeply touched by the regard the people of Old Mysore have for their former rulers.

Meenakshi now lives in Bangalore with her children Varchas and Palashri after the death of her husband. She is an active member of the Rotary Club and also on the Philomena Hospital Committee. Politics is not her forte and, at present, she is totally involved in her Princess Horse Riding School, which trains riders in equestrian skills. Sometimes she just takes up the camera and goes on a shooting spree.

-Aditi Kumar

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