Back Story
Ideas for activities other than sports and Srinithy coming up with Garba Night. Then Maanvi and Srinithy finding this place, and somehow against all expectations, people being interested in a Garba Night.
For me, after contemplating from do I really want to go to a dance party, to going there in a lehenga and all dressed up? And the answer being an obvious no.. to It’s just a party.. let’s go. :p
Off To the Party
From getting together in office, to witnessing people get ready in office, the girls in lehangas and feeling bad for not making an effort, to seeing the boys get ready in just 5 mins by putting on a kurta and feeling a little better, to finally going to the venue.
On the walk to the metro station, the travel via the Bangalore metro and then the auto ride, we had the most random conversations-- about walks :p, about body parts, and how they became useless over time, evolution, colour blindness, pronunciations of metro station names’ sprinkled with tech and office stuff here and there.
Not to mention, for the first time we were happy to see Bangalore traffic, from the metro windows.
And how it ended in me wasting my wish of the day -- to the direction in which metro gates opened. :p
Then, the auto ride after arguments with autowalas. Whizzing through MG Road, taking in the MG road vibe, almost no traffic wide roads, pleasant weather.
The journey was around an hour in total, which passed in less than 10 mins, or so it felt!
The Palace Grounds
Just one step inside the venue, and we all stood shocked. It was like entering a relatives’ wedding, just more lively.
Even among strangers, with no aunties to tell me stuff, I myself felt underdressed, especially in my comfort slippers, which I had changed into after my heels broke :p.
As is customary, every party starts with trying out food. We also did our parts. Everyone was hungry, more so after the office food we were not enjoying lately. I, in general, avoid eating out, but this food was good.
After we all had tried everything we wanted to, we went off to the other end of the party, where people were playing garba.
Here, I was happy, we had to go barefoot. Thankfully, I could get rid of my slippers.
Then I saw about a hundred people coordinately dancing. How in the world? They had not trained together or were professional. How were so many of them so graceful and coordinated?
After trying one or two rounds in the big centre group, I guess we gave up trying to reduce the standards of the folks and started dancing in our smaller group. :p
What I liked best was they had volunteers who taught us some simple steps on request. And we could do them in our group and in pairs. Although as soon as the instructor left we started doing something random. But all of it was fun. It even felt like a workout after a while.
Some people got Dandiya sticks and so we also got to play dandiya.
And after the aarti and after we were all tired, we took some pictures. For a change, they came out well.
Before this I did not even know there were Garba Nights during Navratri. I just knew about Ramleela fairs, that we went to almost every year.
Guess, every part of our country has their own way of celebrating Navratris and Dusshera. Ramleela in north, Garba nights in west and south.. and something else in east :p
Not to sound biased, I had never even given much of a thought to Garba or Gujjus. Have no Gujju friends! From what I have seen on TV, I thought I liked the lively, fun, loud elements of the Punjabi culture more in contrast. And I have been a Bhangra fan though I can hardly do any steps.
Well, I am neither a Gujju nor a Punjabi, just an observer who tends to create half informed opinions very quickly.
So, here I am, again proven wrong. (aur banaao opinions just by seeing stuff on TV 😛 ).
This was the most colourful event I had seen, with the best food. It was high on return on value which I value the most as a principle.
Garba and Dandia are simple dance forms, something you can learn in a few hours tops. And they are played. How many dance forms use the verb “play”. Can’t think of any except these two! Given a chance and if I find a Gujju instructor like the ones I found here, I won’t miss the chance to learn it before my next Garba party.
I also have a Garba song in mind now - I think I picked it up from reels on instagram - Gori Radha Ne Kado Kaan from Wrong Side Raju movie. :p
More than once I had wondered about this! How to organise good parties and events. Where people can have fun. I guess I got the basic points sorted here. Spacious, good food, good music, instructors for whatever activity the event is around!
House parties, stay-overs, pyjama parties with your close friends has its comfort style which I still prefer over big parties, and these big ones have their own charm.
Credits due- To Srinithy who came up with this idea, Manvi who spearheaded the planning, our party ki jaan folks whom we count on for activities- Harsh, Namratha, Befin, Abhijeet, Amogh the new but already feel as Zareer says - part of the gang- Ashwini, Haripriya, Riya, Ayush.. our best party host- Rahul And people who said yes at the last moment- Dhananjay, Ajay, Ujjwal, Mehul..
So, there were 17.
Thanking my stars, that I did come to the party, even though I believed, it is not something I would enjoy as an event. Also grateful, that I was not sick on this garba night and was done with that ordeal in the previous week. And, just had to do with squeaky weird hoarse voice, the remnant of a cold. And people could make out what I was saying, albeit it after repeating it twice or thrice.
Also, When the metro gates had opened on the side I wished for them to open, we all thought I had wasted my wish of the day. But at night, while going back, I realised, I probably had not.
This night itself was a wish, a wish I didn't even ask for, and it came true.
- twwg
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