Republic Day

Today, January 26, is Republic Day in India. While this may be observed quietly in other places, in Delhi this is major event with a presidential speech and major parade through New Delhi starting at the Presidential Palace, proceeding through the India Gate and terminating at the Red Fort . As always, but apparently even more this year, security is a major concern. There have been recent reports that a terrorist activity was threatened for Republic day. I called the UV office in Delhi yesterday (I was in Jaipur for the day) and discovered that the the building had been vacated so that military could secure the building. Our office building is a mile away from the parade route, so that seemed a little over the top. Amir had tried to get tickets for front-row seats from his cousin-in-law, but had failed. Since the crowds are ususaully huge, he bailed out and decided to watch it on TV. That is not why I came to India. I've got to see the real thing. Since most of the activity is centered around the India Gate, I avoided that part of town and walked where I could intersect the parade route further down and hopefully avoid some of the crowds. I walked north from the hotel for about 10 minutes and then turned right into a side street to hit the parade route. I ended up coming through a nursing school campus and tried to exit the campus through the main gate onto the road. I was stopped at the gate and told that no one was allowed on the road and if I wanted to see the parade, I would have to wait and watch behind the gate! That seemed a little odd, so I asked if I did not want to see the parade but just wanted to walk down the road, would that be OK? That seemed too obvious of a ploy,, but he fell for it, and let me enter the street. Now this was a very wide boulevard with at two lanes in each direction, wide sidewalks and a large median. A security fence had been recently constructed to keep people on the sidewalk and off the street. I also noticed that every manhole had a fresh little patch of cement on its edge with a paper seal on it so that they could detect if there had been any disturbance. These guys were thorough! The only odd thing was there was no one on the street. Every 50 yards or so there was a soldier looking out for suspicious activity and more at each intersection, somtimes with a shter built of out sandbags. I can ensure you that there was not much of this going on since there was no one around. I smiled at each soldier I passed and figured that if I could continue to walk along the route towards the parade I would eventually end of watching the parade at close range and have the whole street to myself! This was too weird to be true, and after I got about 4 blocks down the street, someone decided that this was not right and someone with a even bigger gun told me I could not be on the street and sent me through a barrier on a little side road. Now this barrier was a good 30 feet off the parade route and would offer a pretty poor view of the parade. I decided to not stay there but scout out a better place. I figured out that an intersection of two main roads would provide a wider angle of view so after checking the map on my iPhone, I headed a block south tried to turn back to the parade route. Alas, they had decided that this would be too insecure and had completely blocked off the road and would not let anyone within block of the parade route. Instead they sent every one who tried back to where I had just come from. This was getting a little crazy, Why have parade when no one can see it? I was beginning to wonder if I should go back and watch it on TV at the hotel, but I am not one to give up that easily. I figured that if they blocked off the main roads, perhaps I should go the other extreme. I found the smallest lane running beside a railway track and guess what, at the end of this dirt path sat another soldier who assured me I could go further and since the rope was well back from the road and provided no visibility of the route whatsoever I headed back and crossed the tracks and tried the other side. This street was a little bigger and actually appeared to offer some view of the street. A large group of people had already started to gather there, but this was going to be my best shot. Since I do have a little height advantage over most of the local population, I could actually see a little bit of the street. After standing there for about 20 minutes they guards actually let the front 3 rows come forward and sit on the sidewalk!. I suddenly moved from the 6th row to the 3rd! Standing in the middle of a large crowd in India does have its own rules. Several time I found somenone's arm resting on my shoulder. I learned not to be too surprised. A couple of times someone would grab my shoulder and then push me aside so he could get in front. I got used to this pretty quickly, but never felt the urge to wrap my arm around the guy standing beside me. I am sure he was glad of that as well.
I have posted the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/hayojager/RepublicDayParade#