Picture : ANI/X
Bands of the Indian armed forces and the paramilitary will play an array of lilting tunes and foot-tapping melodies, including Vande Mataram, Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja, Vijay Bharat, Sitare Hind and Brave Warrior, at the Beating Retreat ceremony in New Delhi that will also celebrate 150 years of the national song.
This year, the seating enclosures at Vijay Chowk for the ceremony have been named after Indian instruments such as ‘bansuri’, ‘damaru’, ‘ektara’, ‘esraj’, ‘mridangam’, ‘nagada’, ‘pakhawaj’, ‘santoor’, ‘sarangi’, ‘sarinda’, ‘sarod’, ‘shehnai’, ‘sitar’, ‘surbahar’, ‘tabla’ and ‘veena’.
The dominant theme at this year’s ceremonial parade at the Kartavya Path, and other associated celebrations, has been the sesquicentenary of the national song, ‘Vande Mataram.’
Invitation cards to the ceremonial parade carried the logo of the song’s 150th anniversary, along with a silhouetted image of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and ‘Vande Mataram’ as a watermark. Invitation cards issued for the Beating Retreat ceremony also carry the logo and the commemorative images.
Also, performances by the military and the Central Armed Police Forces bands were held from January 19 to 26 in many cities, on the theme of ‘Vande Mataram’.
The iconic Vijay Chowk is all set to reverberate with “captivating Indian tunes” during the Beating Retreat ceremony on January 29, marking the culmination of the 77th Republic Day celebrations, the defence ministry said
