“Navratri” high on beat, passion and fashion, revolving on jhankar beats is in full swing. The festival of nine nights, which originally pertained to fasts and worship of nine faces of Durga is one of the most popular Gujarati festivals. These nights celebrate the “joy of Garba” and dandiya, popular folk dances of Gujarat.Garbais dear to Guajarati’s because it serves as a worship of the “Goddess”. But these days, not only the Gujaratis but also the non-gujaratis celebrate it for entertainment, a reason for a get together of family and friends. The traditional reasons for celebration of this festival have lost its ground to the vagaries of modern day life.
Indeed,the word Garba is derived from the Sanskrit word “Garbadeep” which means a light inside a pot symbolic of the universe. The Garba tradition revolves around Shakti – Ma or Amba, the mother goddess. It also represents the womb and cleberation of Stri Shakti.
Dandiyas during the Navratri even outside Gujarat draw huge crowd, “Dandiyamasti” one such event held at Delhi HaatPitampurawas sponsored by“Radio OYE 104” and “Delhi AajTak”.The air at Delhi Haat, rang with Bollywood numbers with crowds dancing in circles to the click of dandiyasticks. Traditional Gujarati tracks played sporadically adding to a night of fun and revelry. The stage was perfectly lit with colourful bright lights, and singers.
Being the festival of dance in earlier days, now Garba and Dandiya have become more than traditional dances, they have become party places drawing young and old in large numbers. A young woman in Delhi says, “On one-hand it is worship of goddess and on another it serves as sheer entertainment where people from different communities come together for fun.”
“We try to maintain the ethnicity of festival,” says one of the sponsors present at Delhi Haat. We have been organising these event forthe last seven years at different places and this year we are here at Delhi Haat”.
So is Garbais a festival or a party?
