Beating Retreat ends Republic Day celebrations

The Beating Retreat ceremony Friday concluded India’s 61st Republic Day celebrations as some 1,000 bandsmen drawn from the three services held the audience enthralled for more than an hour with a perfect blend of melody and military precision. The function lasted a little over an hour.

The entire event was done in the presence of the President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the three service chiefs- Army chief General Deepak Kapoor, Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik and Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, and other dignitaries.

The program included 21 martial tunes, including popular ones like ‘Sam Bahadur sky board song’, ‘Pipes and Drums’, ‘Pipers Cave’, ‘Jock Wilson’ and ‘Highland Laddle’.

The Navy and Air Force bands played tunes like ‘Ocean’s Splendour’, ‘Bharatiya Navsena’, ‘Sky Hawks’ and ‘Swantantra Bharat Ki Shaan’.

Military bands played tunes like ‘Hanste Lashai’, ‘Gangotri’, ‘Abhinandan’, ‘Giriraj’ and ‘Dola Re Dola’.

The function concluded with Massed Bands playing ‘Drummer’s Call’ and Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite tune “Abide With Me’. This was followed by retreat by ‘Buglers’ and ‘Saare Jahan Se Acha’.