Navaratri- A Radiant Rhythm
- navakallc
- Oct 20, 2024
- 3 min read
There are a lot of festivals that India is known for, but some of them have an especially prominent and special place in my heart. It’s something that I’ve grown up celebrating, and even though it’s not a Maharashtrian holiday per se, Mumbai has been known for its prevalence and events. Adding to that pretense, it’s celebrated every fall, the date varying as it follows the Hindu calendar. Yes, indeed, I am talking about Navaratri. It is a nine-day Hindu festival that commemorates the goddess Durga through dance and celebration until the end of the demon Rakshasa on the 10th day.
One of my fondest childhood memories are associated with Navaratri, because I used to look forward to go dance with my friends downstairs. The dance is called garba, which includes a lot of rhythmic steps and is a group dance, where everybody gathers in a huge circle and performs the steps together.
My community arranged a large area for all of us to dance right by the center, under the huge stream of ribbons and lights overhead. Since I was three, my mom and I would spend an hour getting ready, wearing the traditional ghagra (long traditional skirt and blouse) and doing the traditional makeup and jewelry. It was one of my favorite times, and one of the ways that I started loving dance.
I loved the sense of community associated with it, as familiar songs are blasted by the DJ at the border of the circle formed. My friends and I have been dancing since we were three, and it’s one of our favorite ways to spend time together. I love the way the songs greet you as you walk down from your apartment, walking towards the crowd already forming at the center. The dance usually starts at seven but gets really packed by eight, small groups forming all around the large arena.
It feels like you are a part of a huge color wheel, the colors from everyone’s attires blending together in a whirl as you spin around faster and faster until you’re dizzy and holding you and your friends up, in a fit of giggles. Those nine nights were something I looked forward to every year, getting a break from school for most of the days. At first, we would only stay out till 10, which was still way past our bedtime. Slowly, that time started creeping up, until it became almost midnight on the last couple days of the festival. On the last two days, the dancing commemorated until 1, signaling the end to another great year of Navaratri.
There’s this one specific song that everybody stayed for, and it was always the last song to be played. There’s a special step associated with it, where everybody would crouch down and jump up with the beat, all of us in unison. Staying till that song was always a feat for us when we were younger, because that meant we stayed long enough for the whole thing, and kept dancing. The best and most enthusiastic dancers always got prizes at the end, my friends and I being a few of them as our tiny selves made our way to the big DJ stage.
I miss those times, and I get lost in the memories at times, but I still get to enjoy it here. There’s a lot of garba celebration here during Navaratri as well, and while it might not be for the whole 9 days, and we might not have a holiday, we still manage to have fun and spend hours dancing and laughing with our friends.
