Balarama to lead Dasara procession

MYSORE, August 12: Balarama, a 40-year-old elephant, has been chosen to lead this year’s Dasara procession. He will carry the golden howdah, a privilege which had been enjoyed by Drona for 18 years. Drona, who carried the howdah even last year, was electrocuted, and his `heir apparant’, Bhima, also succumbed. Balarama, is, however, blind in his right eye, a fact which is bound to cause some heartburn to old-timers, who might consider the handicap inauspicious.