On the Night of Dandiya

Dandiya - Dancing with Sticks - Dancing ... Oh how I love this word. It lifts my spirit and fills me with joy. I love to try different styles of dancing- Indian classical, bollywood style, salsa, ballroom etc. However this year dandiya event was a series of comedy events.

On the day of dandiya, I was very tired from my day’s work and somehow had managed to wrap it by 5 to get ready for dandiya event at 6. Very excitedly, we (me and my friends) arrived at the Santa Clara Convention Center in our friends BMW. Wow!!! That was pretty cool – I thought to myself :)....... All set to start tapping my feet, I hear bollywood songs coming from inside the hall (Himesh’s songs call for mini skirts and shake your hip/booty kind of thing) and I here I was dressed in Salwaar Kameez. Well “so what?” I decide and start dancing. That’s when the song immediately changes to traditional Gujrati folk number. After a delta time of adjustment to music, we all run towards the dance teacher to learn some steps from them. All ladies start to dance in circle with Durga Mata’s photo in center. Normally the Garbha dance is done by females before the Puja and followed by Dandiya where both guys and girls dance in pairs. Basically we were not sure if the guys could participate as only females were dancing and there were no other guys in the hall. So you see I could not dance as my friends were not dancing :(........ Then we saw a group of boys and girls coming to dance floor and happily we also joined them :).........

For me, the garbha turned out to be more strenuous than any exercise I ever did; plus the fact that I did not enter the gym for more than a month, I got my ankle sprained with my heel hurting and my feet turned sore :( ....... Gloomily I moved towards the seating area and decided to eat something while I relaxed myself. With all thoughts set on having Dhokla :) ......(b’cos it was light and sure that it would be tasty as many organizers were Gujaratis and so bound to be good), we went towards refreshment center, only to find Pizza (Cheese Pizza :( ) and Starbuck Tazo Chai (Chai Tea Latte :)..... ). All Dhokla dreamz went down the hill :(..... Coming back into the hall, I thought lets do some bird watching. Unfortunately, being a straight girl, my eyes were rather following different girls (who wore such lovely outfits and would have taken long hours to groom themselves) rather guys who were in their normal jeans :( ....... So you see this was not that much of a fun.

Now to round TWO, dandiya starts and we were at the center of dance floor and not able to dance as were five in total and needed one more person so that we could be even in numbers :(...... After looking at each other and around us, we found another soulful lonely guys standing (let’s name him as A) and invited him to join us. :).... GREAT...... Now the party has begun for me and I tried to keep my steps light so that I do not strain my already sprained ankle. After about 20 minutes or so, one of friends dandiya sticks breaks. (Can you imagine Dandiya Stick breaking? Never seen in a movie !!!) Back to confusions now :(....... Can he play with a single stick? Doesnot seems so…. So should we head back home? If he could not play, then we become five and so would need another partner to play? With all this confusion we look at each other. After pondering some thoughts into it, he brilliantly suggested that he could still continue with one stick. Mystery solved :)....... We felt that’s it and nothing else could wrong with us anymore and correctly at that point, our newly dance partner A absconds. :(....

That’s it. I finally realized that it was God’s message to head back home and that what we did. So you see I am still confused if I enjoyed this year’s dandiya event or not???????

Note: This picture was taken after we returned from Dandiya event. :)