The Grinch who stole Navratri (from me)

After missing out on Garba for almost two years I finally managed to get to one all the way in Chandigarh. I saw an ad in the paper and got super excited. I even tried to invite all the folks at work but no one seemed interested. That's just sad. But luckily one guy in my team is Gujrati and he has a bike as well, so we went. It look us a long time to find the place and even when we did, it was a total fluke that led us to the place. No matter, we were there and I was very excited about attending my first garba in about two years.

The crowd wasn't too big but sufficiently big enough that there were good-sized circles. What I hadn't counted on was that the garba/raas I was used to in the US is (probably) a bastardized version of the original dance they do in Gujarat. So when I joined the raas circle, I faltered. In the US, this wouldn't have been a big deal, the line would compensate. But here, a big fat Gujju lady looked at me like I was dirt! I gave an apologetic grin and continued. The next partner was younger and he just continued without a problem. The one after that was Mr. Grinch himself. The Gujju Nazi! He saw me falter and almost threw me out of the line with his hands! He said, in Hindi, "If you don't know how to dance, you shouldn't join the line". Before I could say "I am learning" he very rudely gestured to me with his dandiya sticks to get out of the line. It was humiliating. It really ruined the whole evening for me and we ended up leaving almost immediately.

There were a few Punjabis I saw at the beginning of the evening. Loud boisterous types who were as always having fun. They were doing their own Bhangra thing and it annoyed me a lot. The biggest irony was that I dislike Bhangra a lot - it's too much freestyle in the way it's done by everyone. And I was sitting there smug thinking to myself that I knew how to do the Garba and so I was better. Boy was it humbling! I came away feeling a lot more love for Bhangra and its forgiving nature due to the very freestyle I hated till then!