On October 4th and 5th 2024, we had two nights of Garba and Raas at our India Center. Our center was bustling with activities even days prior, as we had a "Garba Workshop" open to the public for the first time, for free, where around 45-50 people attended and learned to play the traditional dance form of Navratri garba and dandiya. Cultural Committee volunteers made sure to teach and prepare attendees for the upcoming weekend of fun.

Our India Center was transformed and decorated to welcome 400+ guests each night, where they played in our new hall and also outdoors on the patio. We sold out days before, reaching our maximum capacity! The old hall was filled with people enjoying delicious food and buying jewelry, as well as experiencing the new 360 photo booth!

Friday night, we had our very own Jhankaar Beats singers jamming with a specially invited live band all the way from New Jersey. They made everyone dance to their melodious singing and music, be it traditional Gujarati folk songs to hindi numbers to the crowd favorite Sannedo!! Javed bhai set up the perfect audio system indoors and outdoors on our beautifully lit and decorated patio. A highlight for the night was the crowd dancing to a very famous dhol player, who is known for performing non-stop for hours at a time!

Saturday night DJ SIDD was in the house! He made sure to keep everyone on their feet the entire evening, until midnight! We even got to see the younger generation experience the tradition with full enthusiasm. The cherry on top was the weather being just perfect in order to be outdoors sweating it out dancing to non stop rhythmic beats

On both nights, a traditional aarti was performed with lots of delicious prasad offered to Devi Ma, a great opportunity for the community to come together and pray. We were fortunate enough to have many people complimenting throughout the event and wanting more! Our volunteers at ISW worked very hard as always in front and behind the scenes. 

ISW would like to thank all of our volunteers for helping us organize such an amazing weekend packed with garba, dandiya, great food, beautiful vendors, and an enthusiastic crowd! We would also like to thank our community at large, for coming to celebrate with us.

May Ma Durga bless us all to come together again next year with more energy and an even bigger event!

For pictures,  visit:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.550119874337198&type=3

- By Komal Tanna