9 nights.
AHMEDABAD, GUJARAT -
Night 1 - Rajpath Club Garba. After a waiting 4 hours in the middle of the night at a train station, and then a 15 hour train ride, we arrived in Ahmedabad at Jay and Neil's Ba's place at 8 pm. We found out that no one really does garba on the first night.... do you think that stopped us? I came to Gujarat to GARBA! (The garba was hi-fi, everyone does it in their own circles, and if you're not with a bunch of your friends.... not that much fun. But cool to see all the CRAZY costumes, and their styles, and their talent)
Night 2 - Nova Village Club Garba. This time... we rolled deep. Random NRI's, Indicorps, Manav Sadna, Yuva Ahmedabad, relatives, friends.... we are rolled out together. I don't think we've ever even rolled this deep in the Bay, or at UCLA.... (well, it was close)
Night 3 - Society Garba. We wanted to check out a different scene, so we went with Bharat Uncle (Jay's family friend) to his society garba... it was me, Jay, Rishi (Viral Parkekh's cousin, Cal alum), Mans Shah, and Sampat.... this place was tight! They actually did it in one circle, like we do in the States, and the music was awesome! If we weren't all tired from the night before, and we didn't have a little mishap (mans shah 'lost' some stuff), it would've been even more fun!
Night 4 - CEPT College Garba. NRI's up the waaaazooo. We rolled with about 15-20 NRI's, and it was like Swadhyay camp... everyone meeting each other, finding out what they're doing out here, etc.. It's pretty amazing to see all these young NRI's doing all sorts of things.... Indicorps, service work, pilgrimmages, "self-disovery", travelling... etc. The garba was a little strange... EVERYONE did ONE step the ENTIRE time (4 hours)
Night 5 - NID College Garba. This was awesome... I did so much garba! It was only me, Mans Shah, Karthik, and Jay (Sampat took the night off).... huge garba, lots of people, very colorful, everyone doing it in one big circle but doing whatever step they want (like our garbas), lot of young good-looking people... and the music was goood and got prealllly fast!
Night 6 - Sugadh Indicorps/Manav Sadna Garba. This was the "garba slumber party". Some of the Indicorps and MS peeps made dinner for everyone, then we garbaed till the wee hours (3 am), and then we all spent the night in Sugadh! Sugah is where Indicorps has its office.. about 30 minutes from Ahemdabad. Lot of the MS kids stayed up all night playing Antakshari (Choks, these kids were goood.. they would took you to school...), and then lot of peeps played ultimate at 6:30 am!
Night 7 - NID Garba. So good, I had to go again, this time with Sampat and more people. Everyone was a little tired, but I held my own!
Night 8 - Manav Sadna. We were going to go to the Tekra (slum area that MS works in) and check out their "garba" scene... but we got to MS, and there was so much work that needed to be done for Seva Cafe (I'll write about that later), so we just stayed there. We did garba for a while at Manav Sadna... they have garba for the ashram kids. Pretty sweet.. I did the Dhoom step with them. We met Nipun on this day... and have done a lot of conversing with him since then.
Night 9 - No garba! Oh my, my goal was to do 9 nights in a row... but after spending the day until 5 pm, in silence and introspection, I then went to do a little work at Seva Cafe as the opening day was the next day!
Overall... the ACTUAL garbas... I think I like ones in the U.S. better. But, out here... it's just incredible because garba is EVERYWHERE! You're in the streets, and all the girls are ready to go in their chanya cholis, and all the guys are ready to impress the girls.... you hear the music at every street corner... and just to imagine, that this entire state is just caught up in this euphoria for 9 days.... it's just awesome! The ultimate party... the natural high... it's intoxicating...
Night 1 - Rajpath Club Garba. After a waiting 4 hours in the middle of the night at a train station, and then a 15 hour train ride, we arrived in Ahmedabad at Jay and Neil's Ba's place at 8 pm. We found out that no one really does garba on the first night.... do you think that stopped us? I came to Gujarat to GARBA! (The garba was hi-fi, everyone does it in their own circles, and if you're not with a bunch of your friends.... not that much fun. But cool to see all the CRAZY costumes, and their styles, and their talent)
Night 2 - Nova Village Club Garba. This time... we rolled deep. Random NRI's, Indicorps, Manav Sadna, Yuva Ahmedabad, relatives, friends.... we are rolled out together. I don't think we've ever even rolled this deep in the Bay, or at UCLA.... (well, it was close)
Night 3 - Society Garba. We wanted to check out a different scene, so we went with Bharat Uncle (Jay's family friend) to his society garba... it was me, Jay, Rishi (Viral Parkekh's cousin, Cal alum), Mans Shah, and Sampat.... this place was tight! They actually did it in one circle, like we do in the States, and the music was awesome! If we weren't all tired from the night before, and we didn't have a little mishap (mans shah 'lost' some stuff), it would've been even more fun!
Night 4 - CEPT College Garba. NRI's up the waaaazooo. We rolled with about 15-20 NRI's, and it was like Swadhyay camp... everyone meeting each other, finding out what they're doing out here, etc.. It's pretty amazing to see all these young NRI's doing all sorts of things.... Indicorps, service work, pilgrimmages, "self-disovery", travelling... etc. The garba was a little strange... EVERYONE did ONE step the ENTIRE time (4 hours)
Night 5 - NID College Garba. This was awesome... I did so much garba! It was only me, Mans Shah, Karthik, and Jay (Sampat took the night off).... huge garba, lots of people, very colorful, everyone doing it in one big circle but doing whatever step they want (like our garbas), lot of young good-looking people... and the music was goood and got prealllly fast!
Night 6 - Sugadh Indicorps/Manav Sadna Garba. This was the "garba slumber party". Some of the Indicorps and MS peeps made dinner for everyone, then we garbaed till the wee hours (3 am), and then we all spent the night in Sugadh! Sugah is where Indicorps has its office.. about 30 minutes from Ahemdabad. Lot of the MS kids stayed up all night playing Antakshari (Choks, these kids were goood.. they would took you to school...), and then lot of peeps played ultimate at 6:30 am!
Night 7 - NID Garba. So good, I had to go again, this time with Sampat and more people. Everyone was a little tired, but I held my own!
Night 8 - Manav Sadna. We were going to go to the Tekra (slum area that MS works in) and check out their "garba" scene... but we got to MS, and there was so much work that needed to be done for Seva Cafe (I'll write about that later), so we just stayed there. We did garba for a while at Manav Sadna... they have garba for the ashram kids. Pretty sweet.. I did the Dhoom step with them. We met Nipun on this day... and have done a lot of conversing with him since then.
Night 9 - No garba! Oh my, my goal was to do 9 nights in a row... but after spending the day until 5 pm, in silence and introspection, I then went to do a little work at Seva Cafe as the opening day was the next day!
Overall... the ACTUAL garbas... I think I like ones in the U.S. better. But, out here... it's just incredible because garba is EVERYWHERE! You're in the streets, and all the girls are ready to go in their chanya cholis, and all the guys are ready to impress the girls.... you hear the music at every street corner... and just to imagine, that this entire state is just caught up in this euphoria for 9 days.... it's just awesome! The ultimate party... the natural high... it's intoxicating...
posted by Raj Kanani | 4:33 PM
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