M A I N   N E W S

Beating Retreat enthrals Delhi

New Delhi, January 29
As the evening sun gently rolled down behind the imposing Raisina Hills, Lutyen’s Delhi came alive to soul-stirring music by smart-marching bands that was at once mellifluous and martial, racy and languid.

After a year’s break, the enduring tradition of the Beating the Retreat was restored in its full grandeur as the Tricolour was lowered to the buglers’ call for a retreat, signing off the 53rd Republic Day festivities on heady notes of martial music.

Sustained through the years, the Beating the Retreat ceremony was given a go-by last year because of the January 26 killer earthquake in Gujarat. The spectacle returned in its pristine glory as massed bands of armed forces played tunes in a flawless synchronisation of music and movement.

With the majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan and the North and South Blocks serving as a regal backdrop, a 200-sq-ft patch at the Vijay Chowk was transformed into a musical stage as the men in uniform stood ramrod erect while pulsating tunes filtered through the crisp winter evening, stirring up many an emotion.

Watched and heard in revered silence by President K.R. Narayanan, the Supreme Commander of the armed forces, Vice-President Krishan Kant, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the three Service chiefs, other dignitaries and members of the diplomatic corps, the bands orchestrated a nostalgic mood by unleashing choicest tunes from their musical repertoire.

Escorted by his elite mounted cavalry of bodyguards, the President made his entry at 5 p.m., signalling the beginning of the end of this year’s Republic Day festivities. After Mr Narayanan took salute to the strains of the National Anthem, the bands marched down Raisina Hills towards the Vijay Chowk on the notes of “sons of the brave”.

The bands gave way to military pipers and drummers drawn from various battalions and regimental centres.

Fifteen military bands, 12 playing the pipes and drums, and one each from the Navy and Air Force, performed.

Everyone remained mesmerised throughout the hour-long display.

To the massed bands playing the familiar “Sare jahan se achha,” the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House and the Central Secretariat lit up in unison in a breathtaking illumination. UNI