Commonwealth Day is the second Monday in March, and is observed every year at a ceremony in Westminster Abby with the Queen, the headsof the Commonwealth and religious leaders. I was selected by the Rhodes Trust to be one of ten scholars representing them, and was very honoured, but more importantly, I was excited about seeing the Queen.

Alas: A flash of skin and a purple hat. That was all I saw of the Queen. Moments later I got a clear view of her back, but that did not satisfy me. From the side, over the heads of the people standing around me in the audience, I got a clear view of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (who has a very large bald spot that they don't ever show in pictures!) as they walked by, but HRH Queen Elizabeth was so short that all I could see over the heads was her purple hat. I weaved around trying to see her face, but all I saw was a flash of her cheek.

The rest of the Commonwealth Day Observation Ceremony was fun. Westminster Abbey is always a beautiful, awe-inspiring place to visit, and the message shared during the ceremony reminded us of our duty to our fellow human beings, especially those suffering and starving. There was an excellent Bhangra performance, which was tremendously entertaining, although I was struck by the incongruity of my surroundings: the holiest place of the Church of England, full of the remains of imperialists and monuments to colonialists, throbbing to the beat of Bhangra.