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I was wondering whether to do a post on our visit to 'Vaishnodevi temple' or the Wagah Border's Beating Retreat first...Wagah border won!
We went on a group tour to North India recently with Nirmala Travels, Bengaluru. This is our first group tour. We enjoyed it thoroughly! I will write about the interesting parts in different posts.
We visited Wagah Border on 20th Oct. '13. It was a Sunday. We had visited Jalianwala bagh and Golden Temple, Amritsar in the morning. We visited Wagah Border in the evening. All of us, around 40 people, went by a bus. Our bus stopped at Wagah, a village in Amritsar which connects India with Lahore, Pakistan. The village is divided into two halves, one part is in our country and the other is in Pakistan. Wiki says so,
here.
A ceremony called
'Beating Retreat' is conducted everyday here, when flags of the two countries are lowered simultaneously in the evening. Our bus stopped 1 Km from the gate. We had to walk without carrying our handbags or even water bottles. But the water and pop corns were being sold at the venue! Cameras were allowed, thank god! We were warned by our tour manager to walk in single file without making much noise. Soldiers on horse backs were seen going here and there. We were 'nervous', don't know why! I had never seen any video before going there and so everything was new to me.
I heard
this song (link) as soon as I entered the stands. I had goose bumps as usual, whenever I hear this song. Then came other patriotic songs of Mahendra Kapoor's (Manoj Kumar films) and A.R. Rahman's! I wanted to hear this song, '
Vande aaaa....maataram' from 'Anand Mutt' on that day. Maybe it was played earlier! Since it was a Sunday, we could see people everywhere...young, old...even small babies!
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| It was near empty when we reached here. I could see the gates clearly from where we sat. It was on the left side. |
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| This gate of ours is on the right side to where we sat. We thought we were sitting in the best position until more people started gathering! The photo of the father of our nation, Gandhi, is here. |
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| I took this photograph from where I sat. This was on the left side. The photo of Jinnah, the father of Pakistan, is here. Their colour, green is seen everywhere! |
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| Then the children running with flags on this road started. And we cheered them. There was a long queue. Only girls were asked to participate and then women! I and my friend wanted to do it, but the queue was tooo long! So, we just cheered! |
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| Girls and women were asked to dance to the patriotic songs...Rahman's 'Jai Ho' was a patriotic song on that day! His 'Vande maataram' had a different impact there on that day! But 'jahaan daal daal par sone ki chidiyaan karti hain basera' was THE best! |
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| This man was a photographer. Women and girls who ran with the flags were photographed by him. I think he collected their addresses to send the pictures to them. I noticed money being exchanged. Good business. I might be wrong too! |
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| Fullll attendance! This is just on one side. Men were seated separately. We were peeping to see if the Pakistanis had this sized crowd! NO! We were mean to feel happy! |
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| Another section of the crowd! |
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| Very old people were asked to sit here. That is the Border Security Force office. These people are responsible for this side of our border. I saw a couple of tiny, 2/3 month old babies too, here. Two, very old people came in wheel chairs and sat for nearly 2 hours in the sun. |
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| The marching of the soldiers started! They have got such colourful head gears! And we kept on cheering them! Before they started to march in pairs, one of them stood in front of the BSF office and made a long sound, continuously for full 5 mts. without taking a breath. The army man who was cheering, was holding the mike in front of his mouth. You can hear it in the video. The Pakistani soldiers too make the same sound before starting to march! They were touching their heads with their right foot often, while marching. The Pakistani soldiers also did the same on the roads and near the gates. |
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| Marching to the gate. |
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| This army man was the hero of the crowd on that day! He was asking/directing us to cheer the soldiers who were marching to the gate. We were waving our hands and shouting...I couldn't speak the next day! My throat was aching! He had so much energy! |
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| The sun has started going down and the flags of both countries are being lowered slowly, inch by inch and evenly, to the military music. |
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| The two flags of the two countries at the gate, this flag and the BSF flag on top of their office, were lowered together. The crowd was cheering... The soldiers from both sides shook hands, folded the respective flags in the same way. The flags were taken to the office by 5 soldiers...on both sides! The gates were closed for the evening. |
I have got some questions, the answers to which are not available in the net. Does anyone know?
1. They say that this exercise of closing the gate was started in 1959. Why was it started?
2. Who choreographed?
3. How did they train the soldiers of both countries to do the exercise at a same pace at the same time? The military music in the background is the same for both countries!
Though I don't want to accept, I was/we were happy to see less crowd and less cheers from the Pakistani side. Is it because we hear them intruding our space, killing our soldiers, often? I tell myself that they are people like us and their soldiers go through the same agony like ours? But...
I got to see this video now... I was sitting through this atmosphere of patriotism. Yes, we don't have much discipline...people were going here and there all the time through the parades. But the cry of 'Vande mataram' compensated every flaw of ours! We are lucky to be born here. We have got more freedom here to do anything. Our women are not 'disciplined' like theirs. Let us be happy about these things!
I had tears in my eyes, without my knowledge, when I got up from my seat when the ceremony was over! A friend who was with me also was crying...she was my age!
This video which was taken from the Pakistan side of the border, shows what happens at the gate, clearly. The shaking of the hands of the soldiers of both sides is clearer.
While watching I felt that these soldiers from both sides must be friends at other times...one of them must be telling the other, how his leg hurts while stamping on the ground!
The crowd looks less here, in this video. Maybe it was not a Sunday. We went on a Sunday and the stands were full.
Our throats were aching, the next morning after the full-throated shouting!
I will cherish this experience throughout my life!
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Wagah Unity symbol!
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VANDE MAATARAM!
Edited to add: My friend Shail has sent this link which gives some answers to my questions. Thank you, Shail.
P.S.: Thanks 'you tube' for the two videos!
