We had to walk almost three miles with crowds milling around us before we reached our destination. The roads near Kingsway Camp were brightly lit. By the time the streetlights were switched off we were in our places. A very bright sun came up on the huge open square. At one end of the square was a platform covered with a red carpet with two ‘thrones’ placed under a canopy. On all the other sides of the square were rows of chairs at different levels. There must have been over 3,00,000 people in these enclosures. I asked myself where in India you could see such an orderly, well-behaved crowd except in Delhi! White soldiers were directing people to their allotted seats; no one dared to question them. No shouting. No squabbling. And military bands playing all the time; as one brass band ended, bagpipes began to whine; when they ended another roll of drums and the clash of cymbals.

Suddenly the bands fell silent. From the distance we heard the thunder of cannon firing a twenty-one gun salute. Their Majesties had arrived at Delhi railway station.

An hour or so later we heard the roar of crowds from the city side come nearer and nearer towards us and sensed that the royal procession was on its way. A long line of elephants came lumbering down with bells clanging. Then came regimental bands followed by infantry, cavalry, more bands and more elephants. I trained my eye on every passing howdah to see if I could recognize Their Majesties from pictures I had seen. After all the elephants had gone by, I asked my father, ‘Where are the King and the Queen?’ He had also failed to spot them. ‘That’s the Laat Sahib,’ he said pointing to a tall man on horseback. ‘ And that small gentleman riding on the white horse alongside Lord Hardinge is the King,’ said a man sitting next to my father. I was disappointed. He should have been seated on an elephant. Besides the tall Viceroy, the king looked like pink dwarf with a beard. I am sure few people realized that the king had ridden past them till they saw him and his queen walk up to their thrones. Then everyone stood up as massed bands struck up the National Anthem ‘God Save The King’.