The 26th of January is Republic Day in
India, and the main focus of this is a huge parade in Delhi, which is watched
by Indians across the whole country. Everything here shuts down, as it is
basically a super bank holiday. We decided that watching it on the TV when it
was happening just down the road was silly, so despite rumours of it being
insanely chaotic and busy and not actually being able to get there because of a
lack of public transport that day, we embarked on a mission of finding tickets
to the event.
Near the beginning of our time here, we
went into one of the official tourist offices (cleverly avoiding the fake ones
designed to scam unsuspecting tourists), and made friends with a very helpful
man there. When we went back to see him to ask about Republic Day tickets, he
told us that he had a friend who was a police officer who could probably get
hold of some VIP passes for us! We popped in to see him every couple of days
over the next two weeks and the day before the parade, he handed us a free pass
to admit two people to the reserved seating area! He is our friend for life!
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| Our free pass to the parade! |
We had been advised on various websites and
by our friend that we needed to get there in lots of time, and take nothing
with us apart from a bit of money. No phones/cameras/bags are allowed and
security is really tight - unsurprisingly as the President and Prime Minister
are there and lots of Indian weapons and military equipment are on display! We
set off before the sun had even started to show, and to our delight and
surprise managed to stumble upon some free buses that the government had put on
to get to the event, so it ended up actually being really easy!
With our free passes we got through
security and into our enclosure where we found seats right near the front to
wait for two hours in the chilly morning fog for things to kick off. As it got
closer, more and more people arrived until tens of thousands were lining the route.
There were police officers and security people everywhere keeping excellent
control of everything and we were really impressed at the organisation. We were
handed a programme of events as well, so we could work out what was going on
(not many people seemed to get them, but we think it might have been one of the
advantages of sticking out like sore thumbs!).
Things kicked off with the President and
Prime Minister of India arriving with the guest of honour, the Prime Minister
of Japan, in very flashy cars enclosed by jeeps containing lots of armed security
guards. They laid wreaths at India Gate in memory of fallen Indian soldiers,
then we all jumped out of our skin at a huge explosions that sounded as if they
came from right behind us - it turned out to be a 21 gun salute, and once it
had finished it was a while before we could hear properly again! The parade got underway, with marching
cavalry, army and navy troops, all in very brightly coloured uniforms and with
gleaming swords and rifles. Some of the hats were particularly spectacular,
adorned with multicoloured fans, fringes and elaborate decoration. The marching
was amazingly precise, and it had to be, as all the soldiers swung their arms
so far back that if they'd been a centimetre closer to the man behind them they
would have punched them!
We have to admit that the parades of tanks, missiles
and weapons systems weren't our favourite bit, and we felt a bit uncomfortable
being so close to such powerful weapons! The marching bands were fantastic
though, although it was a little surreal seeing tartan covered bagpipes in the
bands! India is the only country in the world with a camel mounted regiment,
and they even had a band which played whilst on the camels; how you can play a
huge drum or a clarinet whilst also trying to control your camel and keep it
marching in line we will never know! The camels were covered in brightly
coloured pom-poms, small mirrors and gold braiding - it's hard to do their
appearance justice but there is a picture in one of the links at the bottom,
just in case you can't imagine a man playing the sousaphone on top of a bejewelled
camel!
After all the regiments and bands had
marched past, there was a cultural pageant made up of floats, each designed by
a different Indian state to represent something important from their cultural
history. These included floats depicting an annual coconut festival where
fishermen give offerings to the sea god to calm the sea, a dance to ward off
evil spirits when building bridges and a Sultan whose hatred of the English was
so great that he had a toy model of an Englishman being mauled to death by a
tiger - we hid a little when that went past! This pageant ended with a
beautiful float decorated entirely with vividly coloured flowers, forming a
model of Rajpath, the road on which the parade was taking place, which includes
the imposing India Gate. It was stunning, and must have taken many hours to
make!
Dance displays from local school children
followed next, then a spectacular motorbike display by the border security
force, who made balancing 6 or more people on one motorbike look incredibly
easy! For the grand finale there was a flypast overhead beginning with several
helicopters followed by the Indian equivalent of the Red Arrows flying in
various different formations, twisting and turning and leaving fluffy trails in
the sky. The last plane flew above us and then flew vertically into the sky,
spinning as it did so, making us feel dizzy just watching! The final flourish
was the release of thousands of balloons into the sky with lots of bits of
silver confetti raining down, an amazing sight to end a fantastic show.
Due to the tight security at the parade, we
don't have any of our own photos, but here are some links where you can see
photos of the spectacles from the day.
Pictures of the Parade
It was a
privilege to be able to be a part of the celebrations and we felt like
honorary Indians for the day!
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