India, Jan. 29 -- Bands of the Indian armed forces and the paramilitary will play an array of lilting tunes and foot-tapping melodies, including 'Vande Mataram', 'Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja', 'Vijay Bharat', 'Sitare Hind' and 'Brave Warrior', at the Beating Retreat ceremony on Thursday that will also celebrate 150 years of the national song. The majestic ceremony traditionally marks the culmination of Republic Day celebrations every year.

This year, the seating enclosures at Vijay Chowk for the ceremony have been named after Indian instruments such as 'bansuri', 'damaru', 'ektara', 'esraj', 'mridangam', 'nagada', 'pakhawaj', 'santoor', 'sarangi', 'sarinda', 'sarod', 'shehnai', 'sitar', 'surbahar', 'tabla' and 'veena'. The dominant theme at t...