04 October,2010 08:20 AM IST | | Amit Singh and shashank shekhar
Post-ceremony, participants left in the lurch
With no glamour quotient involved during the opening ceremony of Commonwealth Games the vividness of country's folk culture was on its full display, which mesmerized the audience. But as the ceremony came to an end the artists who made it all happen were left to the mercy of elements and were kept waiting for more than an hour for their bus to pick them.
Around 200 participants from across India were given a royal ignore by the organisers after the ceremony got over at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Dancers from Ladakh to Kerala and Sikkim to Gujarat gave a scintillating performance but they were left complaining.
B Takappa from Shimoga district from Karnatka with his team of 110 members was sitting on the street out the stadium. "We have been practicing here for the last one month but today no one came to pick us .We are sitting here for the last one hour. This how one treat an artist," said Takappa who performed Dollukunitha.
Similarly, a Bhangra group from Punjab was sitting on the road waiting for their chance to board the bus and reach their accommodation at parade ground. "All of us have been waiting here for the last one hour. We have been told that the bus is stuck due to security protocol but we have been standing here since morning and need to go back for some rest," said Pemchand Kalhari.
| kalmadi booed |
| It was both cheers and jeers for Suresh Kalmadi, the chairman of the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games, when he made his speech while it was cheers all the way for Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Kalmadi, who has been under attack over alleged corruption and several missed deadlines, received a round of boos when he made his speech at the opening ceremony of the Games. |
