Republic Day means a PARADE in Delhi...

Republic Day is a BIG deal in Delhi. January 26 is the day they celebrate the signing of the documents that made India a Republic. To see the parade along the main route (along the road that runs by India Gate), you must buy a ticket. There is 3 prices - 50 rupees, 150 rupees, or 300 rupees. We opted for the pricey ones. The good news is that the seating is reserved and there are risers. The bad news is that security is VERY tight and there are many restrictions on what you can take: no water, no food, no cell phones, no wallets, or bags, and NO CAMERAS!!!!! torture. Most of these photos came off the internet becasue of that. On the plus side, the press had a really good view so their photos are better than I could have gotten anyway. There was a rehearsal on the Wed. before and it was a gorgeous sunny day. On Saturday, it was overcast and smoggy. You can probably tell which day each photo was taken on! Mornings are quite chilly, and I was worried, so we wore many layers and took 4 wool blankets with us. Good thing! It was not warm. I guess you pay most for the tickets closest to the dignitary viewing area. It meant that the announcer was talking about stuff we had just seen go by. At the far end the information would be kind of a waste, wouldn't it? There were speakers all along the route to hear the speeches and descriptions of the floats, etc.
This is a military parade, so no candy was thrown, and no clowns, but there were tanks and mobile bridges and missiles, lots of marching and bands, and guys on tiny motorcycles. No, they weren't tiny motorcycles but there was a team of trick riders. That was cool. The parade began with a 21 gun salute (very cool- I had never witnessed one, and I thought feeling the shock in my chest was cool) which Isaac slept thru (???) then the arrival of India's Prime Minister and President (I think. Sometimes the announcer spoke in English and sometimes Hindi, so we can't be sure) and the President of France, Nicholas Sarkozy. He just married a model/singer and everyday on the front of the newspaper is something about them. Who cares?! Anyway, after the dignitaries, then some military helicopters flew over and dropped rose petals on the crowd! SOOOO cool. Then came the military display of strength. There were floats of each branch of the military and they were VERY elaborate. Then there bands and marchers from each branch. Their uniforms are very bright but their hats were just bizarre. There was also a float from each state, and a few bonus ones from the Education dept, the water dept. etc.
My very favorites were the elephants and the camels. How cool is that?! We had seen the camels on the highway once, returning from a practice. I guess. That is something you don't see everyday, even here - 100 decked out camels on the highway :) Some of the elephants carried kids who had receieved medals for bravery. Randy was saying, yeah whatever to that, but I had read about these kids and they really did do some amazing stuff. One kids had saved people from a house fire, another had saved a kid from drowning, and another had pulled 4 or 5 people from a burning bus.

This is India Gate, a war memorial. It is part of a huge park area with grass. It is always busy with tons of people on the weekend. This is the trick motorcycle group. Too bad they only made one pass, they were really neat.

I was amazed at the marching - white gloves so you can really see their swinging arms. The Muslim regiment could really swing - one guy's hand went HIGHER than his head on the backswing. Don't try that at home!

There were a few school groups in the parade too, and even some groups of girls marching, wearing salwar kameez uniforms.
There was another flyover, of jets this time. That is always cool. They flew over us then straight up and disappeared. These photos are from Wed. On Sat. the sky was so grey we couldn't see them coming and they disappeared fast. Too bad. But it was still neat.

The security was ridiculous - park in seperate areas and walk forever to your designated spot, where you jam up in a shapeless queue 20 people wide to funnel into a single metal detector. Then the men get patted down and wanded out in the open but the females have to get in another line so they can be patted down and wanded behind a curtain. That way, it takes 3 times as long. We all went into the same line, but then we had to turn around to go back. The longer it took the longer the line got of course, and when we were done it was nearly time for the parade, and the line of women behind us had mysteriously disappeared. hmmm. We should have done it too, but we are trying to impress upon the kids that we obey the rules even when they are stupid. And they often are stupid. :) Our area (the 300 rupees area) was filled with probably 30% white foreigners. We really notice that - hearing English, seeing western clothes and blond hair.
Soldiers were everywhere in the area, and we saw many of these little fortresses, usually with a machine-gun-toting soldier behind it.
It takes a long time to disperse a crowd of that size. There were still many people along the route when we drove by after. I can't believe I couldn't get photos of the seating and the people and all that. I probably could have smuggled in a camera, but what if they took it away? not worth it. Ajay waited with the car but he told me later he climbed up on a pipe and could see pretty well.

Afterwards, we went to KFC at Connaught Place in the heart of Delhi. It wasn't opn when we got there (it is illegal to do business before 1 pm on Republic Day) so Randy and Miranda and Alex went for a walk around the circle. Miranda was chasing the pigeons and saying she wanted to catch one, when suddenly WHAMMO one hit a big window right in front of them. So Randy told her now was her chance! So she did. It was very dazed I guess. She held it for quite awhile, then even after putting it down, it wouldn't go away!






We learned after this, that Republic Day is a good day to go home and stay there. We tried to go shopping and the crowds were unbelievable. Really. Such a crush you cannot imagine. Not very fun.