New Delhi, March 13: Notwithstanding schedule disarray and strike of Airport Authority of India's employees leading to cancellation of visits by some prominent citizens of the country, food stalls being put up at the ongoing Manipur Tourism Festival 2008 at Palace Compound attract visitors the most not to mention of handicraft and handloom kiosks.

A whirlwind round of the well decorated interiors of the Festival's sprawling campus and comments from the visitors undoubtedly point to the food stalls as the most popular section with people from different places seen sipping locally brewed beverages along with the indigenously prepared food - both veg and non-veg.

Even as the maharajah of Udaipur (Rajasthan) along with his children dropped plans to visit Manipur for the Festival due to agitation of AAI employees and some visitors aired strong displeasure over delay of cultural programmes from the scheduled hour, many visitors who showed up on the second day today were seen filling their stomach with boiled pork in the Tangkhul stall, sausages of the Kabui community and Singju-Bora items of the Meiteis.

The Tourism Festival being organised by the Department of Tourism to highlight potential tourist spots and popularise indigenous food and handicraft-handloom items with the joint sponsorship of The Telegraph newspaper, News Live television channel based in Guwahati and cellular phone service provider Aircel will continue till March 16. Many of those interviewed by this reporter strongly advocated compulsory adherence to schedule particularly in the commencement of cultural programmes that are actually supposed to begin from 2 pm everyday.

However, the visitors' grumble changed dramatically when their food taste are tested with most of them giving high marks on the well prepared food items being offered at very competitive prices.

From the Tangkhuls' boiled and dried pork items, sausages prepared with all the works and scented-rice bread (Chahau tal) at the stalls run by Kabui women folk to the paknam, bora and singju items of the Meiteis - their first hand experience continues.

During an interaction at the venue, Tourism Director BB Sharma informed that the Udaipur Maharajah had to cancel his maiden trip to manipur as the AAI employees went on strike yesterday even though hotel rooms were already booked for the Udaipur dignitary and his son.

Elucidating that objective of the Festival being held under the patronage of the Government of India is to instill sense of brotherhood among the people living in the otherwise unsettled manipur of today, spread the message of love part from highlighting abundant tourism potential naturally blessed to the State, the Director stressed that support of the masses is very much essential for not only promoting the Festival but also to project Manipur in a palatable manner.

When comment of the well known folk artiste Reuben Mangshangva was sought, he promptly suggested that organising such annual event at other districts as well rather than confine to the State capital alone would be able to evoke the desired result.

Welcoming the idea of setting up food stalls at the festival venue, Reuben nevertheless conveyed that stall runners' only apprehension is that whether such venture would pinch holes to the participants' pockets rather than bring smile through revenue collection.

He was also critical of delays in starting cultural programmes as one delay stands to automatically reduce the entire schedule of the day into complete chaos.

Apart from stalls of various communities of manipur, there are also participants and product display from the States of meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.

Handloom and handicraft items being put up in the Festival include traditional attires of the Tangkhul, Mao, Meitei, Kuki etc as well as pottery, cane and bamboo products, kouna and ornamental flowers in over 116 stalls.

Other attraction of the festival include exhibition of indigenous sports like mukna and kangjei, fashion parade and cultural shows at main venue, motor cycle rally from Mao till Moreh town and boat race at Kangla Moat as per schedule.

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