River festival fails to live up to viewers' expectations

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, April 4: The just-concluded much-hyped the ‘biggest river festival of India: mami Brahmaputra, concluded today, but failed to live up to people’s expectations.

The festival showcased wide potential of the river and its tributaries, besides culture. However, the inclement weather marred the spirit of festivity since its beginning on March 31.

People, especially the young ones, thronged the central venue in Guwahati at Kasomari and Rajaduar ghats at Fency Bazaar daring the weather conditions. They were, however, clueless about the programmes that were scheduled at the venue. People visited the festival out of curiosity – to know what actually a river festival is.

“We don’t know the programmes that are scheduled. We just came here for a hangout. Even in the brochure there is no timing given against the programmes. It seems we just came here to click selfies,” a TDC first year student, Rashmi Gogoi who visited with friends, said.

“I went there with my kids. There is nothing actually worth seeing. We stayed there for five minutes. After rained and we fled from there,” Tajul Ali, a visitor, said.

Apart from the hostile weather, mismagement also added to the failure of the extravaganza. When all visitors and the media were waiting at ITA Centre of Fine Arts at Machkhowa, it was announced all of a sudden that Yoga Guru Ramdev would come at the main venue, not at where there were sitting. The situation immediately turned into a chaos. It was a veritable race with a ‘me first’ motive. However, the worst that happened was a traffic srl – with the road teeming with honking cars, from nose to tail. The outcome is that many of the visitors failed to reach the spot.

The expenditure would have worth every penny had the festival been held in January or February, many of the visitors said as that is famous for picnic period in the State. The festival would have added something more to their merrymaking.