I grew up in Dombivli as a kid, and I remember the excitement during the Navratri festival. There was a hotel called the Samrat hotel near my house, and there used to be a big Garba event there. I went there every year with my neighbors, the Wankhede sisters, who stayed on the ground floor. They were just like older sisters to me from a different mother. I went to see Neetu Tai, the youngest of the three, to get my drawing assignment done. She was a great artist, and she painted so well. I always got good grades on drawing assignments, thanks to her. She was in a different school, but I knew all her friends and was often at their place for some other pretext.
Those three sisters always took good care of us kids, and we (I and a few kids of my age) were their responsibility. They introduced me to the dance steps and helped me get a grip on them. At about 9:30–10, there used to be aarti of the goddess, and the first beat of the drums used to start immediately after that. And that was a signal that the Garba would be starting soon. There was a band that was called in to play live, and the music that they played was just fantastic. There used to be a person playing the banjo, a team of drummers, and a crowd of people who just thronged there to play Garba. First, it was traditional Garba, and then, after an hour or so, Dandiya began. It was always a big task to find a partner for Dandiya, and sometimes the partner would vanish, get lost in the crowd, or decide to dance with someone else at the last moment. I sometimes played with Neetu Tai or her sister and then went home after some time. It was nice fun for nine days, and we usually went on Friday and Saturday nights and then on the night before Dasera, as it used to be a holiday at Dasera. People came in bright costumes, all decked up, and we went there dressed up in a very simple manner. There were often games, fancy dress competitions, singing competitions, and bhajan singing, and there were always enthusiastic people taking part in these competitions.
My favorite Garba and Dandiya song is Sabse Bada Tera Naam o Sherowali, and the beats are so great that one who understands the beats and has a sense of rhythm will start dancing to them.
We often went to different places nearby that had Garba events, but usually returned to our favorite, the Samrat Hotel, as it was the biggest in Dombivli West at that time. It was so much fun, and I often remember those good old days when we roamed without any fear at night.
After school, college happened and that tradition of going to Garba with my neighbor sisters stopped completely. They started their own lives, and we all went our different ways. After many many years, I got a chance to dance at an event in Germany, and all those memories came back to me.
I will always remember my neighbor sisters and thank them from the bottom of my heart for introducing me to Garba and taking me to that event every year.
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