Karnataka locals ‘celebrate’ Deepawali by lighting diyas in potholes

While most people light diyas and burst crackers to celebrate Deepawali, residents of an old age home in Karnataka’s Mandya district turned the festival into an opportunity to spotlight civic issues.

On State Highway 7, Kikkeri–KR Pet stretch, they staged a symbolic protest by decorating potholes with flower garlands and placing candles in them.

Mandya, located around 100 km from Bengaluru, now joins the list of places where citizens are creatively voicing their frustrations over poor road conditions.

Social media users have reacted with a mix of humour and frustration.

Reacting to the video, one user wrote, “Pothole Deepavali, because when the roads don’t shine, the craters will! Bengaluru started it, Mandya perfected it, NASA’s next rover might just land here.”

Another user posting a purported video of a clean road, claiming it to be from Afghanistan wrote , “Handover road management to Taliban.”

One user remarked, “These are the perks that come with freebies! Imagine what all we had to do for basic things in India! Hope one day someone addresses this in Mann Ki Baat so that concerned authorities act accordingly.”

In another humorous take, a user wrote, “Put liquor in potholes & celebrate.”

Earlier in September, a citizens’ group in East Bengaluru performed a pooja on September 27, praying that potholes do not claim any lives. Symbolic acts like these are becoming increasingly common in the city. 

In one such incident, a Bengaluru resident spent his own money to patch a pothole in his neighbourhood. However, within an hour of repairing it, a water tanker allegedly drove over the freshly laid cement, destroying his work. In a Reddit post titled “This city will never get better,” the man shared his ordeal.