dekho! is ko ‘Take It Easy’ lo

32 responses to “dekho! is ko ‘Take It Easy’ lo”

1. D_a_n says:

   April 6, 2009 at 10:13 am

   @ Zakoota…

   judging by your previous comments in praise of the murderous butchers killing these very soldiers….and as an ex soldier myself…I say no thankyou …. please keep your prayers and wishes…for they are not needed…

   The children whose fathers left their home in the service of their country never to return have seen you and your ilk clap, cheer, hoot and high five each other every time a Jawan’s blood wet this very soil….
   so no please…take your prayers …they are not welcome…

2. zakoota says:

   April 5, 2009 at 4:40 pm

   Highly proud of these soldiers, may Allah give them long lives and safe them from devil enemies, ameen!

3. bonobashi says:

   April 4, 2009 at 3:25 pm

   @D_a_n

   I’m in trouble, I can see, but let me try and explain.

   I am objecting to the distortion of the drill book insofar as the huge exaggerations at Wagah are concerned; I see no sense in the elevation of the arms beyond shoulder height during the parade step, in the raising of the knee above the waist-line, and those features. Those were not part of standard drill; why are they brought in? On these issues, I’m old-fashioned; I regret the decline of the slow-step parade inspection gait, and I regret this bizarre Russian business where the squad being inspected turns to face the dignitary as he/she moves along the front.

   Instead, the normal drill at normal tempo (what is this tempo, btw? It goes beyond a Rifle Regiment, almost an Italian Bersaglieri squad’s double tempo) seems to my very prejudiced eye a far more aesthetic pattern. I can understand a Gurkha regiment or any Gurkha para-military squad marching to rifle regiment tempo, but for these tall fellows to do something beyond that seems grotesque. I am reminded that both the British Guards regiments and the Germans in ceremonial squad drill, picked squads with their personnel at a minimum height of 5’10” but typically taller, actually use a slower marching tempo than normal line regiments, two tempi slower than a rifle regiment. Given their height, these two sets of jawans at Wagah should march to a slower, more dignified beat, without those tendon-wrenching exaggerations and wild flourishes that completely ruin it for me. And what is that hip-hop that has become fashionable in South Asia before coming to a halt?

   Going back to continental practice with tall men, the Germans, and following them, the Russians, used a relatively slow goose-step (originally), as we can see for ourselves at Russian military monuments even today, although regrettably tempi have inexorably speeded up over the years even in this. Certainly preferable to my jaundiced vision to this.

   Finally, you will understand what a crusted conservative and a hopeless case you are dealing with if I tell you that I prefer the slow, swaggering march of a Pipe band (please God, to a Highland tune, Cock of the North or Bonny Dundee or Hey Johnie Cope, and not one of the abominations dreamt up by a Goanese or Anglo-Indian band master), and a Highland regiment in step to it, to any other martial sight that I have seen – except the Gurkhas, always except the Gurkhas.

   Why can’t we just have a dignified flag lowering the way we used to? I don’t hold with these new-fangled notions.

   (On a personal note: I envy you very keenly. I was trained for the Navy at a Sainik School, to follow a relative who was our first aviator admiral, and since they found out two days before the SSB that my eyes were bad, have spent the rest of my life trying to find out what to do instead. Never quite succeeded).

4. D_a_n says:

   April 4, 2009 at 2:47 pm

   @ Bonobashi….

   you are right to say that this ‘show’ is an encapsulation of the worst of both countries and is a vulgar display of machismo which does not do any favours for the mindset of the average joe on either side of Wagah….

   however…as an ex- Military man (4th generation mind you…)…..the drill on display is absolutely fanstastic on both sides no question about that….

5. coldrain says:

   April 4, 2009 at 1:29 pm

   we need to give these guys a new job…..

   couldnt have come up with a more useless routine. They probably get arthritis by the time theyre 40.

   if anything, we should create a more civilized routine for our troops and let the indians continue with theirs. They will look like fools and everyone will recognize them as so.