[10-07] Navrati Recap

Chachi re tari sacha re bhuvani ma
Amba bhuvani ma
Hu to tari seva karis maya lal
Nav Nav raat na naudta karis ma
Puja hu karis ma
Dussera dare havan karis maya lal

Navrati in India.

Didn’t do that much garba, but the garba I did do was a lot of fun.

Night 1: Vibrant Gujarat’s inaugural stage show – great fun, no doing garba, but watched garba and much more
Night 2: There was a reason I didn’t do garba this night…
Night 3: So tired from the last couple of days that I slept
Night 4: So apparently no one goes out for garba during the first couple of nights…
Night 5: Went to Ashramshala for garba with the kids, they are so cute. Some boys were playing the dholki and girls were singing different garbos. Certain beauty in the lack of coordination between the two =)
Night 6: headed to Gandhinagar with the cousins for garba. I spent a lot of time just looking at people’s outfits and the different styles of dance. It was a little surreal. I think my cousins thought I was a little odd because I kept watching everything around me. It’s all new to me. Very cool to see. “Fob” garba really is a lot of fun to watch and do. By fob style I mean, very flamboyant, lots of curviness to the hands, turning, etc. Stuff that guys in N. America would NEVER do and even the girls would struggle with getting the nuances of, but extremely typical here.
Night 7: Ramdev, garba with the MSers – SOOOOOO much fun. These boys really know how to do garba, its was ridiculously fun dancing with them (totally fob style of course). People were coming up with their own moves, etc. I had a blast. It was awesome that Sansui got up and starting doing garba with all of us. We had a fabulous time. I fell 3 times during the night. Good ol’ ankle. Once I roll it once, its bound to happen again.
Night 8: Vinay Mandir Garba in the morning. The girls are so great. I went with Sonia’s Mexican visitors and taught Sara and Carmen how to do garba. It was a lot of fun to see them interact with the girls. Garba with the Chokshi. Gautamkaka’s annual garba. Good times also. Very different from the night before at Ramdev in terms of styles, etc, but still fun times.
Night 9: Garba at NID with Nirali, Asha, Archana and Karisma. Pretty good time. They do this beautiful thing where each student is given two diyas and then they turn off the lights and everyone does the same 12 step garba around mataji with a diya in each hand. Absolutely stunning to see. It’s pretty difficult to do with two diyas, I tried with one. Its amazing that so over 200 people do this at one time and multiple co centric circles and no one gets burned. Then we headed to Maheshwari to join the MSers, but by the time raas got kicking, it was time for us to eat before sunrise since a couple of us were doing roja for Gandhi Jayanti. We still had a great time hanging out, powerful conversations and the ankle needed the rest.
Dussera: Celebrated Gandhi Jayanti with Sonia’s Mexico-India simultaneous peace event, which was very powerful. After it was over, her Mexican guests came to MS to eat. But before eating we danced with them for a half an hour or so, which was great fun. They really got into it and let loose and just felt the music so it was a lot of fun to dance with them =) I love it when people dance like no one is watching.