Disco Dandiya at Rajpath Club (Ahmedabad - Gujarat) | My Travelogue - Indian Travel Blogger, Heritage enthusiast & UNESCO hunter!

If you read my last post, you'd know I was in Ahmedabad.... So when and why did I go to Ahmedabad??? Well, last month was the celebration of Navaratri in India. Nava is 9 and Ratri is night. Navaratri means 9 nights. In some parts of India its celebrated for Goddess Durga and in some parts for Lakshmi, Saraswathi and Durga for 3 days each.

Remember my Navaratri Kolu post of last year about this time??? That's how its celebrated in Tamil Nadu. However in Gujarat, its a very different culture! There, after performing puja (worship), at night, dance is performed around the Goddess' sculpture / picture or just a lamp denoting the Goddess. That dance is called Garba. Its essentially denotes fertility! Dandiya is another form of dance performed by with sticks. Of late, the 2 have influenced each other and that's exactly what we danced at the Rajpath Club House in Ahmedabad. That's exactly why I went to Ahmedabad!!!

Traditionally the outfit is a heavily embroidered multi colored skirt with matching blouse and tie dyed long scarf & silver jewels! I wore a simple, golden long skirt and sequin blouse with 2 different colored long scarves (odhni) made of 2 different tie dye techniques & beaded jewels with chand bali (crescent shaped) earrings! More pics of the outfit at Fashion Panache blog!

Here are more shots from ground zero!!! Perhaps the most colorful festival I've been to. Beginning with the oh-too-many colors of the crowd!!!!