Goodbye to the ceremony of silly walks between India and Pakistan

Now I'm not arguing against world peace. And anything that would ease the tensions between two nuclear powers, whose fraught relationship has led to more than one war, is obviously a good thing. But I can't help but mourn the passing of the colourful Wagah border ceremony, whose pantomime aggression is to be toned down to help improve relations between India and Pakistan. Supposedly a simple flag- lowering exercise on the road through their joint border, the 45-minute parade manages to be by turns, ferocious, ludicrous and touching. In elaborate turbans topped with huge fans, complicated uniforms and shiny black boots the soldiers from the two nations high-kick towards each other. They snort. They stamp. Their eyes are crazed and their moustaches are waxed until they resemble a cross between circus ringmasters and John Cleese in Monty Python's ministry of silly walks. They meet and snap to attention; pushing out their fists and raising their thumbs, it looks like they might hit each other. But then they are off, high-kicking again, slamming their heels to the ground with a crack that sounds like gunfire. The crowd loves it. Comedian and travel writer Michael Palin described it perfectly as "chauvinism at its most camp". Watching from the Pakistani side last winter, it was impossible not to get carried away as the audience, made up of families, school trips and tourists, cheered "Long live Pakistan!" and tried desperately to drown out the twice-as-big Indian audience just feet away. We applauded louder still when it seemed like the Pakistani flag was being lowered infinitesimally slower than the Indian one. The guards come from India's Border Security Force (BSF) and the Pakistan Rangers, and have been carrying out the choreographed routine since 1959. Yet this week, after talks to control cross-border crime, Major General Yaqub Ali Khan, of the Pakistan Rangers, has called time on the "eyeball to eyeball exchange, thumping of boots and other aggressive gestures from the flag lowering parade." It's just a shame that peace has to come with a price.