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Reactions from Rally participants
- The Saarc Car Rally was a once in a lifetime experience. Apart from being able to visit so many different places and countries, one came in contact with so many different people and cultures. I also made several new friends.To be honest, when I arrived at Cox's Bazaar for the start of the rally, I did not realize the significance of the event or the importance of our mission. I thought it was a motoring trip through seven countries and my job was to reporton it.
But the first day of the rally changed my perception. The flagging off by the Chief Adviser and the hordes of people that greeted us on the streets made me think we were onto something new and exciting. Bangladesh gave us the term 'human tunnel' and the warmth, friendliness and hospitality of the people has left a lasting impression on my mind. The next stop was Bhutan, a country about which I did not have much prior knowledge. But the trip opened my eyes to the beautiful place and the wonderful people I met there. The landscape was breathtaking and what I heard about the latest developments regarding the king abdicating his throne and paving the way for democracy left me highly impressed. Nepal was also a nice trip, though we had to drive a lot going into and out of the country. I would always remember the scenic town of Pokhara, complete with the beautiful lake, as well as the visit to the sacred place of Lumbini.
The reception at Hatauda was amazing. I was looking forward to visiting Pakistan,especially Lahore about which I had heard a lot. But before that, I must mention the welcome at the Wagah border and the special experience we had whilecrossing over. Lahore is a very enchanting place and did not disappoint at all. The people were so friendly and it did not feel that I was out of India.But the highlight of the Pakistan leg was the visit to the Khewra salt mines, a place about which I was totally ignorant till then. I was amazed at the wonder of nature below the earths surface and the beauty created by salt and rocks. Sri Lanka is one of the most beautiful places in the world and I was totally bowled over by the beauty of its coastline. To add to it, was the majestic hill country and I would always remember my visit to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth along with you, as well as other places of spiritual significance. The scenic Ravanella waterfalls will also be in my memory for a very long time.Though I did not stay in the Maldives for a long time, I was amazed at the beautiful beaches and the crystal clear water which allowed us to see the sea floor. I would remember our dhoni ride and the motor cavalcade with much fondness. We entered India four times during the rally and I must say that my pride in my country increased every time. We were treated royally everywhere and showered with gifts. Had I known that I would get everything that I would need after coming on the rally, I would have travelled much lighter and spared myself the trouble of carrying heavy luggage. In India, my abiding memories would be the visit to the Golden temple in Amritsar, the flying entry into New Delhi and getting into Mumbai city at night, during which some of the cars got separated from the convoy. The end at the Gateway of India was special. But the best memories of the rally would be the people we met and the friends we made. The whole expedition was very well managed and apart from minor, unavoidable glitches, everything went almost to plan.
Source: Message received from Mr. Tushar
- Day 30:
13th April, 2007
Rally Participants given a warm, friendly and relaxed welcome on arrival in Male.
All citizens, including lots of children, thronged the streets of Male
to greet Rally Participants, who were taken around the Island for a
Dhoni ride in the ocean, subsequently in a Motorcade around the
mainland.
Impressive closing ceremony, presided over by the President, His
Excellency Mr. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, was the fitting finale to the
SAARC Car Rally 2007.
Source: Message received from Mr. Vikram Badshah, Rally participant.
- Day 26, 27 and 28:
Sri Lanka has been a great experience so far.
Day 28: 11th April, we started this morning at
7.00am. Drove further north and we saw some lovely locations, tea
gardens. Lunch halt at Nuwara Eliya was a real beauty. Great location
with a lake and a marvellous hotel. We are now on our way to Kandy for
the night halt.
The Navy, and our team did a great job in bringing out the vehicles from INS Shardul on 9th April, '07 at Colombo port.
Day 27: 10th April, we were flagged off by the Prime
Minister of Sri Lanka in Colombo. We drove to the south, to the
southern most part of Sri Lanka and stayed the night at Tissa Maharama.
The day was pretty good with number of well planned halts.
Day 26: 9th April, the Foreign Minister hosted a dinner with cultural programme.
Source: Received from Mr. Ajay Khanna, Deputy Director General, CII
- Day 22:
5th April, 2007
After the arrival of the Rally in Mumbai, an overnight operation to
load the convoy vehicles onto a Naval Ship (by crane operation) was
successfully concluded this morning, in an unique operation which
lasted over 5 hours. This was for the first time, that the Indian Navy
has carried out such an operation.
Source: Message received from Mr. Vikram Badshah, Rally participant.
- Day 20: SAARC Car Rally - Haryana leg
3rd April, 2007
The SAARC Rally after being flagged off from Delhi made a brief stop
over at the Tourist Complex in Dharuhera, Haryana before it left for
Rajasthan. At Dharuhera Captain Ajay Singh Yadav, Minister for Revenue
and Irrigation, Government of Haryana welcomed the Rally and garlanded
the participants.
While welcoming the participants Mr Yadav mentioned that the SAARC is a
remarkable initiative, which would help promote mutual trade and
strengthen the ties among the SAARC Nations.
He welcomed the participants from Afghanistan and added that SAARC rally has brought the message of friendship and peace.
Also speaking at the occasion was Dr Avtar Singh, Commissioner,
Gurgaon. He added that the SAARC rally would lead to further
cooperation among the SAARC nations and would help them move forward
thereby widening the scope of trade and mutual harmony.
Local folk dances and songs welcomed the participants and the
atmosphere was indeed very festive. Mr Kush Joshi, Leader for the
Nepalese delegation mentioned that the Rally has entered Haryana for
the 3rd time and each time the kind of hospitality offered to them was
tremendous and worth appreciating.
Also present at the occasion was Mr Chandprakash, Deputy Commissioner,
Rewari and other officials from the District Administration.
Source: Message received from Ms. Kavita Nair, CII, Haryana
- Day 20:
3rd April, 2007
This morning 16 cars were flagged off by the Prime Minister of India
and Heads of all SAARC countries at Vigyan Bhawan. It was a short
flagging off ceremony, which was well orchestrated event. Everybody
felt good about this, and thereafter the convoy moved on via Ashoka
Hotel.
Gurgaon district did an outstanding reception on the roads and very
nice arrangements at Dharuhera with the Revenue Minister present there.
The traffic was stopped all the way. We have just entered Rajasthan and
crossed Behror and on our way to Jaipur. We should be in Jaipur in
another two hours where we will have the cultural programme and dinner
hosted by the Rajasthan Government. The convoy is now 26 cars including
2 cars from Pakistan. We have had to make some changes in the teams
specially on Team India.
Source: Received from Mr. Ajay Khanna, Deputy Director General, CII
- Today is a day when all the rallyists who have travelled from Cox's
Bazar are anxiously waiting for the BIG moment. It all began on the 15th
of March when a chain of Safaris kicked off in Cox's Bazar, loaded with
small groups of people from different backgrounds with different
communication skills and languages. The people came in all shapes,
ages, sizes and color. They all hopped into the brand new Safaris with
eagerness and hope to get to the finish line. They were all painted in
yellow with patches of orange and a few red spots. Most of them took
out their dark glasses to hide the crow's feet that developed in their
youth. The slick chain of Safari rolled out of Cox's Bazar to be
greeted with warm and smiling chains of humans. Added to that was the
warm gesture of open hands that danced all night long. The human chains
never failed to greet the Safari chain with smiles, colors and flowers.
Not to forget the gifts that were showered and were enough to fill the
safari trunks.
As I look back on the route that we travelled, the first thing that
comes to mind is...this interesting metaphor. If you know your
geography well, you can imagine how a chain of Safaris driven by warm
people went stitching the countries together to form SAARC similar to
sewing small pieces of cloth to make a big one.
Till this day, the Safari chain has rolled on for more than 15 days. It
all began from Bangladesh, travelled through India to Bhutan, moving
down the valley to be greeted by India again and then off to Nepal,
then to India again to Pakistan and then to India yet again. Today, a
family with more than 103 members are all in India waiting for the 14th
SAARC Summit and 1st ever SAARC Rally to be flagged off by the Heads of
eight states. My BIG family is ready to roll down to Sri Lanka and then
finally to Maldives.
Source: Message received from the Rally Participant, Nedup Tshering (Bhutan)
- Day 17:
31st March, 2007
SAARC Car Rally 2007 is an
expedition for Peace, Harmony, Friendship, Trade. Trust me, we have had
success because we won peoples love and friendship among the SAARC
countries. Thousands of people were standing besides the road in rain,
in unbearable scorching heat, in the sun, to wish us. While I was
crossing these countries I wrote a few lines. I would like to share
those lines with you about our "SAARC CAR RALLY 2007":
"Open your eyes to see the smile lay your hand together to strenthening
ties runaway to left the border behind in every step you will find a
friend. It is SAARC Car Rally here for you stand up let me hold you
again, It is SAARC Car Rally for you peace and love I wanna give u
again."
Source: Faruk Sobhan Nayeem from Bangladesh (Channel i).
- Day 15:
29th March, 2007
Rally convoy has arrived in Islamabad. Everybody impressed with Lahore,
Islamabad connectivity, and the hospitality / reception received in
Pakistan.
Source: Message received from a Rally Participant.
- Day 14:
28th March, 2007
Had an excellent send off from Chandigarh by the Administrator of UT
and the Governor of Punjab, (Retd.) Gen. S. F. S. Rodrigues. The Punjab
Government and CII had made excellent arrangements to cross over.
The cross over at the Attari/Wagah Border was very smooth. Huge media press on both sides.
On the Wagah side, after the border crossing, Pakistan gave a rousing
welcome with the Minister of Tourism welcoming us and also number of
folk artists and children.
Source: Message received from a Rally Participant.
- Day 11:
25th March, 2007
Rally received by Nepalese in Kathmandu with alot of warmth and
enthusiasm. The Speaker of the Assembly, Deputy Prime Minister and
several other Ministers, were involved in all Rally related functions
and the Flag Off ceremony, which took place at Basantpur - a world
heritage site.
Source: Message received from Mr.Vikram Badshah.
- Day 10:
24th March, 2007
Mini Car and motor bike rallies escort rally out of pokhara, after an impressive farewell ceremony.
Source: Message received from the Rally Participants
- Day 9:
23rd March, 2007
Rally leaves India after its second leg and arrives in Nepal. Received by multitudes of enthusiastic people.
Source: Message received from the Rally Participants
- Day 8:
22nd March, 2007
Assam accords a warm and colourful reception to the Rally. Chief Minister flags off convoy at Impressive ceremony
Source: Message received from the Rally Participants
- "We hope the rally is able to break the ice for the future and
help in boosting relations between all the SAARC member countries,
especially India and Pakistan," -Ehteshan Abbas, The leader of the Pakistan team.
- "One cannot achieve the journey of a thousand miles in a day and
it should begin with one step. Let us hope this is the beginning of a
new dawn for better relations between the two countries,"-Abbas
- "Let us hope for a single currency for the SAARC countries in
the days ahead. This rally will help bring people of the neighbouring
countries together, besides opening up avenues for trade and commerce
and tourism," -Mahmood Sajjad, team leader of Bangladesh
- "The response has been tremendous in Bangladesh, Bhutan and in
India's northeast. We hope we are able to submit a concrete proposal to
our leaders to make SAARC a strong movement," - Francis Richard de Zoysa, leader of the rally team from Sri Lanka.
- "There is no border for building relations with people and
strengthening business ties. We are sure we would be able to achieve
our target of building new bridges of hope and friendship," - M. Rasheed, a participant from the Maldives
- "It's meant to expand goodwill, tourism, culture and business ties," -Hafizur Rahman Bhuiyan, head of Bangladesh's state-run tourism corporation.
- "It will be a good chance to see other South Asian countries, and exchange our culture and views with them," -actor Tony Dias
- Day 5:
19th March, 2007
On the 5th day of
the Rally, we were received in Thimphu yesterday by the Hon'ble
Minister for Home and Cultural Affairs, Lyonpo Jigme Y Thinley, and
there was the Welcome Programme, Dinner and the Cultural programme with
participation by the entire Thimphu and its population.
This morning the Rally was flagged off by the Hon'ble Prime Minister of
Bhutan, Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk. We left Thimphu for Gelephu and on the
way there was reception by various district governors. All of this was
extremely well organized by Bhutan. A great job. Tomorrow we are off to
Guwahati.
Source: Message received from Mr. Ajay Khanna, Deputy Director General, CII
- Tying The Knots of Friendship Tighter
By Team Bhutan
- Day 4:
18thmarch, 2007
Rally was super. Each day is better. Entry into india was well
organised at the border. India did us proud. Now on to Bhutan tommorow.
Source: Message received from Indian Rally Participants.
- Day 3:
17thmarch, 2007
Reached Bogra. "Millions" greeted us, amazing response.
Source: Message received from Rally Particpants.
- Day 2:
16thmarch, 2007
SAARC Rally just reached Dhaka. Rally, 2nd was superb. Traffic was
stopped for rally to pass by. Entire city on roads, waving at us,
welcoming us.
SAARC Rally on way to Dhaka miles of peoples kids, hoardings, banners, super arrangements
Source: Message received from Mr. Ajay Khanna, Deputy Director General, CII.
- Day 1:
15thmarch, 2007
Rally takes off to among tremendous enthusiasm. Thousand's of people at
the Flag off ceremony at Cox Bazaar and along its route.
Source: Message received from the Rally Participants
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