It's raining flowers!

Cyrus Dadachanji & Mohit Midha
15^th March, 2007

Today's the Big Day! This morning, the first ever SAARC Rally kicked off to a glorious start from the Cox's Bazaar Stadium. But just as every seemingly perfect event has a lot of hard work and precision behind it, so did this one. The first task was to get every one out of bed, fed, checked out and ready with cars packed by 8 a.m. The anticipation of the event did the trick all by itself. By 6.15 a.m., one could see people trouping towards their cars, bag and baggage in tow. The Tata Motors team had probably worked well into the wee hours of the morn to ensure that all the cars were ready to go, right down to tissue boxes, medical kits and beverages for participants.

At exactly 8.15, a.m., the first Tata Safari rolled out of the parking lot of Hotel Seagull. One by one the others followed, until there were 28 gleaming vehicles, led by a police patrol car. The convoy slowly snaked its way to the Cox Bazaar stadium, around 2 km away, and each car lined up in its allotted place within the stadium. Then began the long process of undergoing a security check for the cars as well as for each one of the participants. I guess there's no escaping that considering that the Rally would be flagged off by none other than the Honourable Chief Adviser, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed i.e. the senior most politician in Bangladesh, today! For the next ninety minutes, we sat around, traded jokes and kept ourselves occupied until the chief guest arrived.

The inauguration ceremony was kicked off by a short speech by the Chief Guest which emphasized Bangladesh's role in the SAARC rally, and how he hoped that it would help co-operation in the region - not to mention added prosperity in Bangladesh. It seemed only fitting that such a mammoth effort should be blessed by our very own Asian mammoths - seven elephants, each bearing a SAARC country flag. As the elephants trooped out, a bunch of school boys took to the field, and thrilled us with co-ordinated marching and other exercises. Over the next hour or so, girls from various local schools took to the field, and regaled us with a wide variety of dances. Some of them imitated butterflies, others gracefully leapt between slapping bamboo sticks, some twirled umbrellas, while another group taught us new trick with plates! Each of the groups was graceful and enthusiastic to a fault, and drew a huge round of applause. But the real star and heart stealer was Ms. Dias, a local Bangladeshi star who's travelling with the Bangladesh Team. She sent a stand full of school girls into hysteria, as she went up to them and signed a couple of hundred autographs - while standing in the hot sun! It seems that the SAARC Rally 2007 goal of fostering people - to - people contact has got off to a good start.

At 12.00 noon, the rally was officially flagged off. As the cars rolled past the podium with the Chief Guest and media personnel, each one of us knew that we were blessed to be a part of this rally. Sure, the official appreciation to the SAARC Rally was impressive. But it was the unofficial display of delight, love and admiration for the adventure we had embarked on that completely blew us away! We travelled around 175 km from Cox's Bazaar to Chittagong in a span of seven hours. A journey that should normally not take more than three hours took more than double the time only because of the rousing reception every Bangladeshi man, woman and child in every town on the route gave us. It was literally raining flowers for the entire journey. In fact after the first 10 minutes, it was impossible to drive with the windows open. The first 'flower shower' hit us with such intensity that the car looked like a flower market! We had flowers all over the seats, our clothes, the carpets, every where. As we approached a town, the local residents, backed by hundreds of flag waving, flower throwing school kids formed a 'human tunnel' around the cars, forcing us to slow down to a crawl. I had to keep watching out for small kids as they pressed dangerously close to the car, only to shower us with blessings.

We stopped for a while at an orphanage, to take a look around and witness a small cultural programme. The orphanage at Ramu also has a temple that people claim is 2300 years old and holds a relic of the Buddha, a part of his rib. We also drove through a wild life sanctuary and came face to face, literally, with a couple of mean lions and a pair of graceful, but lethally dangerous tigers! Once again, it was the wild atmosphere on the streets that took the cake. There were arches with roses, giant cut outs with roses and streets littered with marigolds wherever we went.

For one day, the common Bangladeshi elevated 120 mere mortals to the status of royalty, if not divinity. There's only that much that administration can do. But it cannot force people to shower their love - that comes on its own. And I sincerely hope that this rally will do justice to the faith that the common man on the street has reposed in all of us. As they say here, 'Inshallah' or 'God Willing' it shall come to pass.

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