Delhiwale: This way to Republic Day Parade
Old Delhi's Republic Day Parade once thrived through its streets, recalled by Fareed Mirza, who remembers the vibrant crowds and celebrations of his childhood.
This way to Republic Day Parade

Intro: Mapping Old Delhi’s 26th January route
Chapar-chapar, chapar-chapar—the footstep sounds would reverberate all through the night of 25th January on the street outside his home in Mohalla Qabristan. An endless multitude of people would be on their way to watch the great parade, which would be due to begin in the morning.
This is how Old Delhi businessman Fareed Mirza remembers the Republic Day of his childhood.
Most of us place the annual Republic Day parade of 26th January merely to the short stretch along New Delhi’s Rajpath avenue (now Kartavya Path), where it marches through an audience comprising of our republic’s top VVIPs—this is the part of the parade that has been beamed live year after year on our TV screens. The parade in fact goes all the way to Old Delhi, though it passes only along its fringes, on Netaji Subhash Marg, before culminating at Red Fort.
There was a time, until about the turn of the century, when the parade burrowed deeper within the Purani Dilli streets—as Fareed Mirza recalls. Sitting at his shop, the businessman says that during his childhood days in the early 1970s, almost nobody in his area had TV, and kids like him would experience the Republic Day parade as a singular larger-than-life event in the humdrum of their existence. “On the morning of Chabbis Janvari, we children would get up very early, dress in fine clothes, and escorted by a grown-up chacha or mama, we would join the crowd outside our gali, everybody heading towards the path of the parade.”
Fareed Mirza and gang would walk until Minto Road, where “we would spread a chaadar on the roadside and settle down with packs of makai (popcorn).” The parade, he says, would arrive from the direction of Connaught Place, pass through Minto Road, enter the Walled City through Ajmeri Gate, continue straight, and reach the spice shops of Khari Baoli. There the parade would enter the historic avenue of Chandni Chowk. It would go past Sunheri Masjid, Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib, Central Baptist Church, Shri Gauri Shankar Mandir, Sri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir, and finally end at Red Fort.
On being prodded, our kind recollector recalls that people from nearby towns would start arriving in Delhi hours before the parade was to begin. Late in the freezing night, they would either get off at Old Delhi railway station, or at Kashmere Gate bus adda. And while the morning was still far, these visitors, covered in blankets and shawls, would cross Old Delhi streets in pitch dark to reach the parade route. “All night long my gali would resound with their footsteps; I vividly remember the chapar-chapar, chapar-chapar.”
PS: Photo shows citizen Siddharth standing at the mouth of Netaji Subhash Marg where the Republic Day parade will enter Old Delhi tomorrow.

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Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.