Moreh bids rally farewell

Reoports that Shah Rukh and Aishwarya Rai would turn up turned out to be just rumours. But all across the North-East, and especially in Manipur, where screening of Hindi films is more or less banned, people did not let the disappointment come in the way of according a grand response to the India leg of the rally.

The enthusiasm was the same across the 800-km route from Guwahati to Moreh. To the participants’ surprise, there were impromptu Naga dances and requests by local Lions Clubs to drop in and taste authentic Northeastern cuisine.

‘‘Don’t these people have schools and offices here? Just look at them,’’ said Indonesia’s Dany Sarwano as he basked in the cheers at an early morning reception at Senapati in Manipur. Even officials of the CII, the rally organisers, were taken aback. ‘‘The level of enthusiasm is amazing,’’ said Rajat Majumdar, Rally Chairman.

Amid the cheers, heavily armed security forces stood vigil all along the route.

And government enthusiasm was not found lacking. Bureaucrats and sundry officials organised state banquets and shepherded flag-waving children for cheerleading duty.

‘‘We have never seen anything like this and want to make the most of it,’’ said N. Rio, Chief Minister of Nagaland. His counterparts in Assam and in Manipur want the rally to be an annual event and the 1,400-km highway to Thailand——the rally is a precursor to this expressway——to come up as soon as possible.

The rally will snake its way across South-East Asia before finishing at Batam in Indonesia. It has over 250 participants from the ASEAN countries and three teams from India.