The adventures in India continue... Last Thursday was a special day for India - Republic Day! On January 26th, 1950, India officially put their constitution into effect. In celebration, the government puts on a huge parade in New Delhi. Thanks to my amazing Uncle Dharmendra, the Police Commissioner for the Delhi Police, we were able to get VIP passes to see the parade. If we didn't have these passes, we would have had to wake up at 6 am to make sure we got a place to stand to see the 10 am parade! With the passes, we went to the main road of the parade, located between the President's House and India Gate.
India Gate President's House (Rashtrapati Bhavan)
Note that I did not take these photos - they are from Wikipedia. We were not allowed to bring anything into the parade grounds because the security was extremely tight. Anyways, after getting into the VIP section (in fact, we got to cut the VIP line to get into the VIP section!), we sat down in the front row with a clear view. Right before the parade started, two planes flew over us and showered everyone with a rain of flower petals.
The parade started out with the army brigades. Many brigades marched by with uniforms in every color! There were also bands accompanying each brigade. One brigade was on camels...and so was the band! Everything was very proper and serious, but the diversity of uniform, marching style (swinging the left hand in-sync!), and the bands were entertaining.
Next came the cultural floats - many of the countries in India had huge and intricate floats that presented an aspect of their culture. There were people on each float dancing, acting, and wearing their native clothing. When Punjab came, I cheered very loud (of course!). There was a loud speaker that gave the history of each float and country, so we had a bit of a learning experience as well.
After the floats, there was a motorcycle show. There were people doing acrobatics and crazy things...all on motor cycles! After that, there were flyovers by many planes in the Airforce, followed by a closing salute to the Prime Minister and the President (the President of India is a woman, by the way!). The parade ended with a sea of green, white and orange balloons filling the sky while the national anthem played. The entire experience was one of the most amazing and extremely well organized. It's fascinating to see that among all the chaos of Delhi, there is an ability to run very organized events such as this parade. I have really come to the conclusion that India is a land of juxtapositions - just when you think you have seen something and made up your mind, you see the exact opposite happening down the street!
Here is a picture I found on the web of the parade:
That night, we went back to India Gate and the President's House to see the lights that they displayed. We were able to take pictures! Here are some great snapshots:
Note that I did not take these photos - they are from Wikipedia. We were not allowed to bring anything into the parade grounds because the security was extremely tight. Anyways, after getting into the VIP section (in fact, we got to cut the VIP line to get into the VIP section!), we sat down in the front row with a clear view. Right before the parade started, two planes flew over us and showered everyone with a rain of flower petals.
The parade started out with the army brigades. Many brigades marched by with uniforms in every color! There were also bands accompanying each brigade. One brigade was on camels...and so was the band! Everything was very proper and serious, but the diversity of uniform, marching style (swinging the left hand in-sync!), and the bands were entertaining.
Next came the cultural floats - many of the countries in India had huge and intricate floats that presented an aspect of their culture. There were people on each float dancing, acting, and wearing their native clothing. When Punjab came, I cheered very loud (of course!). There was a loud speaker that gave the history of each float and country, so we had a bit of a learning experience as well.
After the floats, there was a motorcycle show. There were people doing acrobatics and crazy things...all on motor cycles! After that, there were flyovers by many planes in the Airforce, followed by a closing salute to the Prime Minister and the President (the President of India is a woman, by the way!). The parade ended with a sea of green, white and orange balloons filling the sky while the national anthem played. The entire experience was one of the most amazing and extremely well organized. It's fascinating to see that among all the chaos of Delhi, there is an ability to run very organized events such as this parade. I have really come to the conclusion that India is a land of juxtapositions - just when you think you have seen something and made up your mind, you see the exact opposite happening down the street!
Here is a picture I found on the web of the parade:
This looks so amazing! Too bad you couldn't bring cameras to your VIP spot ;)
ReplyDeleteThat looks like one heckuva parade! Very interesting... keep the posts coming :D
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