Wagah Flag Lowering Ceremony (Beating Retreat Ceremony)

Friday 24 October 2014

After their train trip and after checking in at the Holiday Inn (not your everyday Holiday Inn!) in Amritsar, Pati and BeeBee were driven to Wagah on the border between India and Pakistan. Since 1959, the Border Security Forces (BSF) of India and the Pakistan Rangers have performed an elaborate flag lowering ceremony at this international border. The ceremony is a mock-aggressive, well-choreographed (and infinitely negotiated) competition between the two different groups. Participating soldiers are chosen for their height, physique, and performance abilities. The Indian side has recently added women to their corps, but they are not allowed yet to do anything more than march to the gates, since the Pakistanis do not yet have women soldiers here.

Both sides have built tall stands for viewers. Pati and BeeBee, being US citizens, were permitted to sit in the VIP section with a slightly better view into the Pakistan side. However, once the performance began, and people stood up, height was more important than VIP-ness!

The performance on the Indian side was preceeded by children and some adults running into the performance area carrying the flag of India. Anyone could enter the queue to carry the flag. After this, some young women (and some young men and children) danced in an impromptu fashion to music blaring on the loudspeaker, enthusiastically if not especially well.  Through all this, a man climbed through the stands selling baseball caps sporting the flag of India.

Promptly at 5 pm, the main event began, and it ended promptly at 5:30.  Pati and BeeBee's guide had explained the ceremony and what the various shouted slogans would mean. This was fortunate, since otherwise, they would have had very little idea what was being said! A man in white was the Master of Ceremonies on the Indian side; another MC on the Pakistan side could be heard performing similar duties.  The MCs shouted slogans that were repeated by the audience. On the Indian side, it was: BSF! Second to none! And so on. Undoubtedly, the Pakistan side was shouting similar slogans for the Rangers. Between the slogans, the soldiers of each side took turns strutting and posturing for the benefit of the audience and the soldiers on the other side.

The ceremony ended with the flags of both countries lowering simultaneously, a soldier from each side shaking hands, and the gates slamming shut.

Readers of this blog should really find videos of this ceremony on YouTube.

Postscript: as a result of recent unrest between India and Pakistan, sweets for Diwali were not given to the Rangers by the BSF.

Postscript: We just found out that a suicide bomber killed at least 60 people a few days after our visit.

BSF! Second to None!

Diwali

Thursday, 23 October 2014

Diwali is the beginning of the Hindu new year. It is a holiday celebrated outwardly by bright lights (like our Christmas) and fireworks (like our 4th of July).  Pati and BeeBee didn't plan to be in India for Diwali, but are happy to be here for it. They missed this celebration on earlier visits.

One unfortunate consequence of Diwali is that, because it is a holiday, fewer tourist activities are possible and the crowds are much larger.  Unfortunately for their guides, they must work on a holiday. Pati and BeeBee's guide told them that the tourist season is only six months of the year, that he therefore works six months and stays at home for the rest of the year.  The working six months must pay for the non-working months. He cannot afford to miss a day of work. He did not take even one day off from work last year.

Pati and BeeBee celebrated Diwali by a nice dinner on the rooftop terrace of their B&B, watching fireworks. Fireworks began at dark (about 6 pm) and went well beyond midnight, trailing off at about 2 pm with the occasional boom thereafter. It was as if everyone made the trip to South Carolina to buy a carload of the big illegal fireworks (but all they really had to do was go to the fireworks street in the market where they are perfectly legal to buy). Then they set them off all night all over the city. It rivaled the more controlled 4th of July displays at home. There were no safety officers directing their use here; frequently it sounded as though someone was beating a corregated piece of metal with a large club, as if a firework went off sideways into a wall instead of making it into the sky. Pati also saw a man walking through the street beating a drum, reminding him of Christmas carolers at home making their rounds to spread cheer.

Although the booming continued into the night, making sleep difficult on a night when they had to get up again so early, it seemed that Pati and BeeBee had a cheerful sendoff from their days in New Delhi.

Diwali