Haute garba wows revellers

Although the Gujarati community has a strong hold over community shindigs, dandiya is fast becoming an event of great magnitude, writes Meeta Chaitanya.

For most of us, garba and dandiya celebrations have long been an integral part of the format of Navratri festivities. Originally, this nucleus of song and dance found its bearings in the Indian state of Gujarat but has now become synonymous with convivial gatherings all across the world.

Although the Gujarati community here has a definitive strong hold over community shindigs, dandiya - being a more inclusive phenomenon like the pan-Indian fascination with bhangra, is fast becoming an event of great magnitude for the Diaspora.

This year too, with the advent of the Navratris -- a festival that is by itself a resplendent canvass for mirthful merry making -- the cognate ritual of garba raas has everyone in Atlanta riveted with anticipation.

Among the temples leading the fray the event at the Shree Shakti Mandir of Atlanta, Lake City, beginning on Tuesday, October 04 through October 16, 2005 is being seen as one of the best local shindigs.

The temple is organising the Navratri festival including the raas performances from 8.30 pm daily, at its premises.

Likewise, the well-known and versatile Navrang Group is at the forefront of Navratri 2005 yet again and starting on the weekend beginning October 7th, 8th through the next weekend they will be celebrating the Navratri raas garba with local Indians at the hub of Indian activity here, Global Mall, Norcross.

Here too, the event begins at 8.30 pm and being held during the weekend, has families rocking to both the pristine folk dances and the newly instituted fusion style -- a pageantry of current Bollywood beats, Gurjarati folk and even hip hop residue.

The Gujarati Samaj Navratri function held every Friday & Saturday from September 30th to October 22nd will culminate in a dinner gathering on October 29th. Similarly the India Club, Georgia Tech, in association with GSU, Emory and UGA, hosted the annual garba at its Student Centre Ballroom, on Friday, October 7th. The gaiety here was redoubled by the serving of traditional Indian sweets and snacks including samosas, kachoris, chaat and pao bhaji. The IACA too joined in the festivities offering a similar montage for song and dance to interested patrons.

While prominent religious establishments and temples here have arranged for the 9-day long garba gala, it is the informal and smaller garba parties that are making their presence felt, as friends and associates rev up the revelry mood by organising the raas at local community centres and even at their own houses.

Local caterers and all time favourite Indian restaurants here are being patronised enthusiastically by Indians ordering 'Navratri special meals'. Men and women dressed at their ornate best during this festive season with bright chaniya cholis and kedias hand-embroidered and ordered way in advance from India, are seen donning their wares in a laudable attempt to look their gavthi best. Emerging simultaneously is a trend of popular fusion creations as kamkha (the traditional Gujarati blouse) and denim worn with the chudla (bangles worn over arms, not just wrists).

As for the actual dancing, gone are the days of puritanical enunciation of raas, garba, hudo and tippani- the dances of Gujarat and, now of Navratri. In the spirit of things they are being displaced by the more facilitative, if not skillful amorous song and dance rig.

From being a filial affair in which a group of ladies sang and danced to the mellifluous dholi and shehnai paying obeisance to goddess Durga, it has become laden with social overtones, diffused in essence but disseminated to a wider audience in the process.

The revelry among 'desis' here is only but a subdued reverberation of the reach of garba. For, the religious subtext that surrounds the concept of garba raas alludes to garbo, an earthen lamp with numerous holes, lit from within by ghee baati around which the dance is performed. Representative both, of the human body that encases the soul-light and the natural world illumined by God, the garbo then bestows upon revelers a sanctuary of peace, prosperity and happiness. Even, as it is peppered by bhangra beats and disco dandiya. Fusion, assimilation or corruption -- the perception may be individual, but the celebration; universal.