In which drums are beaten

I was given a ticket to go to the Beating Retreat today, which is an annual thing. I’m not sure what it’s about, it possibly has something to do with Republic Day. I went with Gopal’s brother (who has an awesome beard) and an elderly lady friend of his. They chose not to speak too much English around me. Every now and then they would, but not often.

The three of us get into a car and head over to the President's house. After a bit of a hike from our parking spot, and another violating security check, we sit down in our seats, and wait. Boy, did we ever have to wait. The good thing about the wait is that the President has a *really* nice house, and seating was set up so that we had a very nice view of all the domes and columns and stairs and other architectural features. All along an upper lever were camel guards! As in maybe 20 soldiers on camels, nicely lined up to best show their profiles. They were doing their best to remain static, but even the best trained camel can sometimes be beligerant.

Yes, I amused myself by watching the camels. The entire time. Every now and again, one of them would get bored of standing in a line and try to wander off, only to be immediately corrected by a number of camel minders who must have been hiding somewhere. One of the, for the *entire* event, insisted on keeping his face towards the crowd instead of in profile. I liked him best.

The actual Beating Retreat was pretty boring. It consisted of more military displays, this time in the form of marching bands. The bands played various songs on mostly brass and percussion (although there was some bagpipe) and walked around in various formations. At the end, all the bands played together, which was a bit of a disaster in my opinion. Every now and again, I'd check on the camels to see if they were enjoying it more than I was. For the most part, they were. At least they weren't running away.

For some reason, sitting and watching the whole Beating Retreat made me really tired. I had been planning for days to go to a Sufi music concert tonight, but I'm just too damn tired. Which is a shame since I *really* wanted to go to this concert.

Beh. Camels.