Whilst staying at the Golden Temple I made an afternoon trip to the Wagah Border were India boders with Pakistan to see the changing of the guards ceremony and what a spectacle it was to be seen. It was hilarious. Before the ceremony actually began, when the 100s of people were eagerly trying to get to good spots, they played AR Rahman's "Jai Ho" and the crowd went crazy. Jumping up and down, singing and there was a man down at the front with a microphone saying "I can't hear you!!!!" and over-enthusiastically throwing his hands in the air in a bid to get the crowd to go even more crazy.
The guards resemble red cockerels with the funny head-dress they are adjourned with and are seen as heroes with people in the crowd passing their babies over just to be held by the guards for a few moments.
When the ceremony finally begins it is a spectacle of loud drones and then what closely resembles the ministry of silly walks with the guards parading about kicking their height. You can sense the rivalry between these two countries, with only a gate separating India and Pakistan and each crowd trying to make more noise than the other.
Here is a video I found on youtube of the ceremony:
Despite all the noise of the ceremony there was a little boy sitting beside me who was only interested in staring at me and his mum wanted me to take his photograph, awwwwww.
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