The Dandia fever is here. And it is to stay for nine days.

What a respite!!!

The Dandia fever is here. And it is to stay for nine days.

After days of anticipation and searching through Hindi Milap & Hindi Vaarta religiously everyday for the past 10 days, it was a respite seeing the first Advt. of Dandiya of the season. Hope this isin’t the first and last of those Ad’s.

I still remember the days, when we used to see loads and loads of Ads everyday, about each and every Dandiya event organized in Twin Cities.

Times have changed now, thanks to the recent bomb blasts and the threats, due to which the organizers seem to have shied away from organizing the event this year.

Generally speaking, one could see a dozen Ad’s in news papers daily about various Dandiya events.

Namdhari Gaurav Navratri Utsav, a name synonymous with Navratri Celebrations in Hyderabad is back to their basics this year by organizing it at Mallareddy Gardens, their home ground. It used to be real fun at Mallareddy Gardens but from the past couple of years, they had shifted their base to HITEX Grounds, near Hitec City.

It was such a passé, never felt like going there. Whats the point in dancing on Carpeted floor, that too indoors. Authenticity seemed to be the lowest there.

The reverberating sound in the closed indoor hall of Hitex made me feel as if I am a part of one of those events organized by Gujrati Students Associations in USA, where in they generally do the Navratri Celebrations in Auditoriums and Halls. Enclosed Arena with Carpeted Floors isn’t that authentic for Dandiya.

Me too, as the organizers, have shied away from Namdhari Gaurav Navratri Utsav for the past 2 years and have been to various other places except Namdhari Gaurav Navratri Utsav full time.

But this time, it is a total different story altogether, I shall be back to the basics with Namdhari’s…. BACK TO MALLAREDDY ;)

Lemme share something with you, about 4 years ago, I still remember the day, when all of a sudden it started drizzling and everyone on the floor started running away, searching for shelters. We were a group of about 12 people, we continued dancing as we always follow one thing “Let Rain Come or Sun Shine, the Show Must Go On”.

Initially people thought we were crazy, but a few minutes later, we could see people rushing back onto the floor and most of them joined us and danced away in the rain. It was real fun, “The Challengers”, were all excited by the sight and were playing the best of the best tracks for us all, The Brave Soldiers of Navratri, who fought with rain and were continuing with what they loved the most.

This year, I do anticipate Rain and the Garbaraas drenched in rain.

Rain rain don’t go away,
Come again right away.
All the people,
Wanna play

So, lets embark on this new mission and shall keep you all posted about the latest happenings and etc.