Those of you who were woken up on Sunday morning by the sound of big guns could be forgiven for thinking the Maoists had attacked. What a great way to mark Democracy Day: by scaring the living daylights out of everyone in the capital. Whoever thought of this symbolic wake-up call deserves a medal. Tundikhel this week has been the venue for our slightly bored army boys to play with their toys, while an equally bored citizenry thronged Tundikhel to watch their antics. So there they were dressed in smart white gunjis doing intricate things with batons, or lining up with their guns pointing in the air as if they were on some great grouse shootfest. Then on Shivaratri we saw the entire Air Wing consisting of four helicopters (each of a different make) raising a massive dust-storm while trying to land. Paragliders swooped down, struggling against brisk headwinds to touchdown approximately on Tundikhel. Others proceeded to blow up replicas of Nepali farm houses with huge orange explosions. The Shivaratri parade has traditionally been a psy-war exercise to impress Indian pilgrims with our military might. (A similar parade on Phulpati was aimed at impressing Tibetan mountain goat traders who came down from Kerung during Dasain.) Today, who are we trying to impress today, ourselves?