The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were entranced by the energetic dancing of a three-year-old boy at a romantic fireside party last night in Assam on the third day of their tour of India.
The couple smiled and pointed at him as he moved between a group of dancers and drummers including his father at a fireside harvest festival at a Bihu festival by the Diphlu River Lodge in the Kaziranga National Park.
Kate was in her third outfit of the day, a green patterned dress by American designer Anna Sui, while William wore white shirt and grey khakis and desert boots, as they sat around a fire in a sandy enclosure that had been made sticky by a downpour about half an hour earlier.
Despite the tacky ground, the women danced barefoot. But it was the little boy that caught their eye. “They were so happy to see him. They were really watching him, said Ranjinee Bhukan, of the British deputy high commission. “I’m sure they were remembering their little one.”
The little boy who captivated the royal couple.
At the end they sought him out to meet him, and chatted to his dad. “You were very energetic,” William told the little boy. “He knows his dancing very well,” he added.
The Rongali Bihup is a spring festival marking the end of harvest and the beginning of the New Year. Bhukan added, “It means we are happy that the harvest is over. We welcome the New Year and we pray to the Lord that the year goes well.”
The couple, looking relaxed around the fire, clearly enjoyed themselves and were tapping their feet to the music. “They are a lovely couple. I thought I would be overwhelmed and I might get tongue-tied but when I saw them they were so friendly and so normal.”
When they met the musicians afterwards William tried his hand at playing the gogona, an instrument like harp made out of bamboo. “Is there anything you can’t play?” he asked Krishna Kanta Baruah. “Very unusual, brilliant.”
The royals are staying at Diphlu Lodge in the park for two nights as they see for themselves the efforts to both preserve wildlife and learn what’s being done to manage the conflicts that arise when humans and wild animals live in close proximity.
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