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Celebrations in style

Young Mangaloreans plunged headlong into dancing the garba and dandiya this festive season

COLOUR AND GRACE The dances were accompanied by remixes of Hindi songs PHOTO: AP

Globalisation translates to a cultural amalgamation at an extraordinary scale. When we have turkey for Thanksgiving and carved pumpkins for Halloween, we should not be curmudgeons and complain about Dasara celebrations including garba and dandiya.

And people are thoroughly enjoying themselves like Srinidhi was overheard telling her friend: "Dasara was totally happening this year! I had been to a variety of celebrations and it was just amazing!" This Dasara, Mangalore witnessed an amalgamation of cultural celebrations. The city was drenched in fun and grandeur. There was a different feel about the festivities. While the local people followed tradition, different sections of the city had various other communities hosting the festivities according to their cultural norms. The city turned into a mini India, what with different ethnic communities boisterously celebrating the festival in their own way.

New way

The youth seem to have found a whole new way of celebrating Dasara. While they have not totally given up on local tradition, they were very interested in checking out the different ways of celebrating the festival and dandiya was a great favourite. "Celebrating Dasara with dandiya is fun. While we are borrowing an aspect from another culture, it does not reduce the importance of local tradition in any way," says Anirudh, employee in a local bank.

While the Gujarati Mahajan Association organises garba programmes every year, in other places disco dandiya concerts were also hosted.

"Modernisation of dandiya is okay to a certain extent, but it should not deviate from the traditional base. At our association, dancing to even film songs is not allowed, only ethnic dandiya music is danced to," says Chetan Patel, proprietor of Rainbow Ceramics and advisory member of the association.

The youth flocked to the concerts in colourful ghagras and kurta-pyjmas and danced to remixes of old songs. There was a perfect fusion of modernity and tradition in the outfits sported by the youth. As far as fashion goes, Ramona, from Signature Showroom, said: ""Straight or umbrella cut cotton skirts teamed with kurtis work very well. People are basically going in for ethnic chic."

Antique jewellery and dangling bangles are perfect accessories. The air was humming with boundless energy as youngsters danced zealously to the tunes spun out by the DJs.

While Mangaloreans have a blast, the out-of-towners have their fix of nostalgia. "These concerts remind me of home and family," says Kaushik Patel, a student from Ahmedabad.

Disco dandiya has its detractors as well like Arpita Keswani, a homemaker, who says: "Disco dandiya completely robs the dance of its cultural base. Adding disco beats to film songs and dancing knowing nothing about the dance is not on." And Hetul Patel, a student from Ahmedabad, says: "There is a distinction between garba and dandiya. There are different styles of doing them and the music is different too. People should take the trouble to find out about different cultures before indulging in them." Other dissenters like Seema, who works in a BPO, says: "Local tradition should not be totally discarded in the process of taking on aspects of another culture. Whether it is dandiya or some other folk dance, the youth should not forget its cultural base."

While the organisers say that such concerts bring people together and provide a forum to socialise, elders feel that such concerts are just a waste of money and have the potential to distract the youth from moral and ethical values. Whether culture is upheld or degraded, it is an opportunity the youth to have a blast.

AMRITA NAYAK

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