Kritika and Twesha Taneja explaining their exhilaration over dandiya night said, “My sister (Twesha) and I have purchased nine different lehnga choli (traditional Gujarati outfit), silver jewellery for this navratri. For last two years we have been attending garba nights at Ranchi club.
lust for loud music, late night dance and variety of foods draw us to the venue.” The two sisters use to hear about such nights being celebrated in Gujarat and had fantasy of being a part of it. Earlier dandiya nights were popular only among Gujarati communities of the state capital. What used to be small roof-top affair among them has now encompassed in all section of the Indian society, spilling over on to huge ground and clubs.
Seema Gupta who came to Hotel Pinnacle along with her family said, “Earlier dandiya nights used to be organised at places having Gujarati populations. Barely, six-seven years back people hardly knew about any such function being organized in their city. But now it organized in almost every part of the city. According to Seema garba dance is not restricted to only fun and frolics indeed it is competition for them. The best performer is awarded so each one try to give their best input.
Choreographer at Pazeb Dance Institution Siddhart Kumar said, “Adoption is human nature. Over a decade it has been witnessed that we are celebrating all festivals as Indian irrespective of our caste and creed. In Ranchi preparation of garba dance commence a month ago. From toddles to senior citizen all come to practice garba moves.”
The sale of dandiya sticks has also shown a rising trend in past six months. One can find an array of dandiya sticks decorated with gold, silver, velvet and small-sized pearls available in three different sizes ranging between Rs 500 to 2,000. A shopkeeper in the lane of Upper Bazaar Ravi Sharma said, “The sale of Dandiya is pushed up in last six months. Earlier we use to sale painted sticks but now decorated dandiya are brought from Ahmadabad and its adjoining areas. People demand for decorative dandiyas.”