Week 39/2025
22nd to 29th Sep 2025 (Monday to Monday)
I am typing this on the 30th night. I had already made mental notes and rough work in my notebook about this weekly note, but I’m late to type and upload it. I have a reason: It’s Navratri week.
I have never been excited for Navratri before this year. I have several reasons for that:
- I never got the steps of garba, not even the simple two, three clap garba (this is a big deal if you’re born in Gujarat and especially in the culture city Vadodara, where garba is world famous)
- I never got the group of same-age people who go and explore garba during Navratri, because I dropped out of school and then college, so it was difficult to get a same-age friend group
But I was always interested in music and singing. I used to go to the ‘United Way of Baroda’ garba ground with family just for listening to the garba, and I really really enjoyed that. I used to sing and play rhythm on my chair along with listening to each garba while sitting in the audience.
I was feeling jealous of my school friends and other familiar groups because they did garba and enjoyed it thoroughly… I used to lie to them. I used to say that I was part of the United Way garba ground technical team so I enjoyed garba by being part of the team but not by playing on the ground.
I tried learning garba steps by looking at people but never got it. Because of that, I slowly started hating garba… and never understood what attracts people to spend this much money, energy, and effort on this activity. Never understood how they were enjoying it so much.
Cut to this year’s Navratri…
I got introduced to Navratri of Ahmedabad. There are 571 venues of different kinds of garba. Some are concert style like Aditya Gadhvi, Kirtidan Gadhvi, Ishani Dave and more.
Some are old style mandali and saree garba. There are some concept-driven grounds also like Inner Circle. There’s garba in apartment compounds…
But each and everything is commercialized and has lost its essence. It’s only Instagrammable events altogether.
Navratri used to be and is - a 9-day event to pray to the goddess / the energy of the universe.
Dance is the offering to that energy. There are types and meaning in each and every song called garba. It actually came from the word ‘Garbh’ which means womb, and the event is in honor of the life-creating energy.
There are multiple types of garba - dakla, ras and much more. Different communities developed their own style. There’s traditional type garba and modern Bollywood type garba also.
In Ahmedabad there are concert style garbas where people make small small circles and dance, but real garba should be playing around the garbh, in concentric circles in rhythm.
There are minimum ₹1000 tickets per day to play at these venues, ₹200 parking charges, and everything is commercialized from food and water to devotion.
I was following Hardik Dave’s work for quite some time and he started an initiative called Navshakti Navratri, which is community-based Navratri, where there is no ticket price but you can donate as you wish. There’s a community kitchen, traditional garba and Indian instruments.
I am putting the Instagram page here - please please explore and get to know what exactly the difference is…
I really really wanted to go to this garba. I tried getting tickets for the same but because of the limitation of the ground, they only give a certain number of tickets, you need to stand in a four-five hour long queue to get tickets.
I didn’t get the tickets. But coincidentally…
One of my dearest friends, Nishtha, put up a stall about ‘sexuality and Navratri’ at the Inner Circle garba ground. She came to Ahmedabad with two more friends.
Nishtha invited me and Nidhi to her stall for volunteering. Nidhi went for two nights. You need to be awake the whole night, set up the stall and interact with unknown people on a taboo topic, but it was interesting. They have developed such a nice experience through games and sensorial experiences.
One night me and Nidhi went together and during that time I tried playing garba at the venue. They play techno music at the end so I tried doing garba on that, alone in my circle…
It was a nice experience to stay awake the whole night and volunteer a little bit at the stall. There also I interacted with children…
I got to know that one of my friends had one extra ticket for Navshakti. I grabbed the opportunity. I wanted to go with Nidhi but at the same time I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. I went there. It was like home. Everything seemed familiar…
Few realizations and achievements for myself:
- I tried and learnt two clap garba (at Navashakti they do the same step the whole night) (I learnt the suoer simplest step, still sometime don’t feel confident enough to play.. group matters)
- I could do two clap garba constantly for 2-3 hours, while enjoying the whole thing, singing along, expressing myself fully
- I felt like home, I felt like I belong here, I felt like I am part of a community
- I am surprised about my stamina. After doing garba till 5am I went to the office at 10:30 and did work with full energy without any dull moment, and did the same thing the next day also
- I never heard dakla and traditional garba. I got introduced to it now. I only knew sophisticated garba from Vadodara and some more. I am now more interested in dakla and other forms of garba
These are really big achievements - breaking my inhibition and expressing myself through dance and music, and being present in the moment of joy.
I am really grateful to the friend who gifted the passes for Navshakti.
On Sunday, Navshakti garba was off because of rain. We went to the Kirtidan Gadhvi concert type garba. Worst place to visit…
Anyway, but I am really happy about the whole week.
Work-wise the whole week was super slow… now I am picking up the rhythm again.
- Mon 22nd Sep - office work | Nidhi went to Inner Circle
- Tue 23rd Sep - office work | Nidhi went to Inner Circle
- Wed 24th Sep - office work
- Thu 25th Sep - office work
- Fri 26th Sep - Inner Circle with Nidhi
- Sat 27th Sep - Navashakti Garba
- Sun 28th Sep - Kirtidan Gadhvi Garba
- Mon 29th Sep - Navashakti Garba | Nidhi went to Kalibadi for Durga Puja with Debo
Listening:
I am a little bit sad and having FOMO because I didn’t take the effort and so didn’t get passes and couldn’t go to Navshakti today. I was thinking to just go to the ground to just listen to garba but it’s ok. I need to rest also and go back to work. I missed the Sanjhe Sapne call also this week and some other small tasks.
We will plan next year navratri in advance. This time mummy send chainyacholi from Vdodara whcih was savior for us. Anyway, let’s end it with good feeling… good week.
Photos
