On Tuesday, in the heart of Delhi, not far from Rajpath where preparations for India’s 68th Republic Day were in full swing, a historic hotel was busy teaching its employees how to goose-step together.
Thirty men, in various uniforms, stood in the gardens of The Imperial on Janpath, while a suited, bespectacled man shouted instructions. There was none of the military precision and coordination in their march-past – but it did bear the same camaraderie.
“It’s not a big production, there’s no band or special arrangements,” said Aparupa Ray Ganguly, head of public relations and marketing at The Imperial, about the practice session and the final staging on the hotel lawns on Republic Day. “It is a sort of a value add for our guests.”
The Imperial is a true symbol of a bygone era. Inaugurated in 1936 by Lord Willingdon, the Governor General of India, it is steeped in history: the Nehru family had a permanent suite here, says the hotel’s website. And it was here that Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Lord Mountbatten met “under congenial conditions” to discuss the partition of India and creation of Pakistan.
The hotel began the tradition of holding its own Republic Day celebrations around seven years ago, as a way to observe the spirit of the day.
“It is quite informal,” explained Ganguly. “The march-past takes place without any interruption to the guests. We extend an invitation to all, [and] many prefer to watch the proceedings as they have their breakfast.”
The participation is volunteer-based. “There’s no pressure from us,” said Ganguly. “We pick the best from whoever has volunteered and they are trained by The Imperial security manager Mandeep Abrol.”
At the practice session on Tuesday, the volunteers were full of spirit as they put their best foot forward.
