Guitars, Guinesses And Vintage Cars

Come October and Shillong explodes in celebration of the much awaited annual Autumn Festival. This year too, there was much action happening in this capital city of the colourful Northeastern state of Meghalaya. The Autumn Festival 2007 was a weekend long celebration from 26th October ‘07 till November 4th ‘07 with various exciting events taking place in Shillong City and its suburbs as a run up to the Grand Finale at the Orchid Lake Resort, Umiam. The TE was there, in the midst of this gala event, and brings you this report.

GUITAR ENSEMBLE

Bob Dylan must be a happy man. Never did he imagine that his ’73 smash hit ‘Knocking on Heaven’s door’ would serve as the passport for a quaint town in India’s Northeast to enter the Guiness records. Shillong, on the afternoon of October 26th was purely guitar country. And it strummed its way into the Guinness Book of World Record with the largest guitar ensemble.

When 1,730 guitarists, mostly youths, strummed in perfect rhythm to Bob Dylan’s timeless classic Knocking on Heaven’s Door for more than five minutes at the city’s Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, it catapulted Shillong into music history once again. It may be recalled that Shillong had earlier notched up a world record for the largest drum ensemble with 7,951 drummers taking part during the event held in the same venue last October.

Shillong.. The name itself somehow still manages to conjure up images of music, college day escapades and wild fun with friends. The lip smacking jalebies of Delhi Mistan bhandar, frentic bargainings at Glory’s plaza and the endless strolls in Police Bazaar never goes out of fashion and comes back invariably when one is in town. But all this was far away on this eventful autumn afternoon, when all roads led to the Nehru stadium - Ground zero for the world record attempt. The writing was literally on the wall there, World Record Guitar Ensemble, in big bold letters.

Inside the hollowed grounds, was a sea of eager faces in blue caps, white t-shirts and the quintessential guitar. A short rehearsal and it was time for the moment of truth - the attempt to beat the previous record. The earlier Guinness record of 1721 guitarists for the largest ensemble performance, of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,” was set on June 3, 2007 at Kansas city in the United States.

My watch read exactly 3.30 p.m.when the strains of the Dylan classic started streaming from the guitarists on the stage, leading the congregation. The intoxicating music quickly enveloped the environs, with every soul humming the same immortalised lines, “..Knock, knock, knocking on Heaven’s door..” The song ended after it had crossed the nominated five minutes of synchronised playing.

And while the number of participants was getting calculated, various versions of the timeless classic were being belted out with the eager participation of the participants, from reggae to one played on the harmonica by the state Education Minister R G Lyngdoh. Soon the verdict was out, announced by Meghalaya police chief Bijon K Dey Sawian, and the response was quick and sweet. The guitarists stood up and raised their guitars to the sky while erupting with joy over winning the record.

“Though we set a new world record, we are sad as we were expecting more than 2,000 guitarists,” said Aiban Mawkhroh, one of the chief organisers of the event. But the pride on every face was evident on emerging as victors once again.

The guitar ensemble was held to start the celebration of Autumn Festival 2007 organised by Meghalaya Tourism Development Forum (MTDF). The annual Autumn Festival is aimed at promoting seven sister states including Meghalaya. It comprises of events like fashion show, sports, kite flying, fishing regional songs and dances.

The next day, Shillong rocked once again at the same venue. Eric Martin, voice of the international rock band, Mr. Big wowed the crowds with his evergreen chartbusters performing for the first time in India under the ‘Festival of Rock: Shillong.

VINTAGE CAR RALLY

Day three on our Autumn Festival tour and time for some good old beauties. The vintage and classic car road show was part of the Autumn Festival and a much awaited event on our itinerary. Almost 30 cars from the entire region participated in the rally. A Bullet Club from Manipur christened the ‘Royal Riders’ with almost 30 Royal Enfield Bikes participated and escorted the rally.

The rally started at Shillong Club and went to Don Bosco Ground, where spectators were allowed to watch the beautiful cars. The rally thereafter went to Police Bazar and ended there.

Shanti Lal Jain, owner of the Morris 8, 1939, out in his stately best said, “I had never expected to see these old beauties rolling out on the streets again, and today it is a proud occasion for all vintage and classic car owners.”

Ford Model T of 1904, the oldest vintage car in the pageant which also featured in the film ‘Gandhi’ by Director Sir Richard Attenborough in 1980, was later crowned as the ‘Queen of Pageant’.

The beauties who stole the show and the hearts of the onlookers on Sunday afternoon included Volkswagen Beetle of 1956, Austin Cambridge of 1952, Morris Ten Series M of 1938, Ford Convertible Anglia of 1938, Austin 7 of 1927, Morris 8 of 1936, Morris Minor of 1953, Ford Model A of 1928, Standard 10 of 1947, Standard Pennant of 1959, Standard Herald of 1964, Hindustan 14 of 1955, Plymouth Savoy of 1957 and Ford Galaxy of 1962, with the last two drawing a lot of attention.

Apart from these vintage beauties what moved us most was the Morris Oxford of 1950 make, beautifully painted by 15 ‘specially abled’ children of Shishu Sarothi. Three of these children accompanied the owner Joonjyoti Changkakoti to the pageant and spread the cheer around by distributing greeting-cards made by them and their friends. One could get an idea of their vivid imagination in the riot of colours, birds, fishes, balloons, flowers that they had painted on the car.

The rally drew to a close at Khyndai Lad, (Police Bazar) after covering a distance of almost seven kilometers, thus bringing to an end a tour of the golden age of automobiles.

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