My girls danced in garba!

Last night we danced our feet off dancing garba. We even got some dandia ras in before everyone got tired. The Gujarati community has been dancing garba and dandia for weeks! We missed all of the main garba events this year, except for the last one at the South Indian temples here. That's the one where Priya got very sick. She's better now. We had heard from the BAPS temple that there was a special occassion, but we had missed two Sundays so we didn't know what the special occassion was. We did dress up when we went to temple however, and that was a good thing. Last night was the womens and girls special garba. Garba by the way is pronounced as "Gurbah".


Last year we attended the major Garba event at one of the high school gyms, and there was live music...very loud...very fun and I danced, but it was so crowded that I often ended up being stepped on or bumped in to. One guy bumped into me and knocked me down to the ground. I decided to get out of the fast dancing at that point, and return to the very slow but outside circle. Lakshmi and Priya had a great time playing with the kids, but they noticed that a little girl younger than them knew all of the Garba dances, and danced with the adults all night. This was their favorite friend at the time, and they talked about this all year! So this year the girls were dressed for dancing and they decided not to. I grabbed Lakshmi and took her to the circle where I stood behind her and moved her arms and body until she learned the basic steps. She was resisting most of the time saying, "I know how, or I don't want to do it anymore". After two times around the large circle, she danced the rest of the night! She did so great. Lakshmi has problems with movement, and she did wonderfully in spite of it.

I grabbed Priya next, and she wanted to dance like Lakshmi was dancing, so I helped her and in time she was dancing too. It felt wonderful doing Garba with my girls. The future includes the girls and I dancing Garba. It is a wonderful opportunity to help them connect to their Indian heritage.

Lakshmi told me last night that she feels like a "real Indian". That made my heart feel very happy".

I wish I had a photo, but I had no idea we were doing Garba, so I didn't bring a camera. I hope someone there did take a photo, and if so I will get a copy. Meanwhile, here is a very short video of Garba here in our city, but I only wish it was better put together.




Fall is the season for Indian holidays, and the next thing on our calendar is Diwali (some call Deepawali). This holiday is special because it is all about Goddess Lakshmi. I plan to decorate and celebrate to the fullest. Most families go from one friends or families home to the other. We will be in the middle of moving, but we will do our best.

Jyotsna