Garba khelo ?

DISCLAIMER :
No personal feelings please and with due respect to all garba lovers.
No harm intented to religious sentiments.

I moved to Ahmedabad just one month before Tatas decided to move to Ahmedabad ;) - a truly amazing city for sure, but this city two serious problems , first it comes in dry state - so hard time boozing, second this is the land of GARBA - the traditional Gujarati dance performed especially during the the festival before dussera - Nau Durga. It was my first garba season here and I've some tonic for you -

1.) Every body says Garba khelo (meaning - play) , now can you tell me - how do we play a dance ?

2.) After doing garba, here is my definition :-
" It is an activity where people form circle or ellipse and rotate while clapping in a weird fashion and everybody thinks that we are dancing. "
I went to all the famous places in Ahmedabad and saw so many garbas - all I was reminded of Godhra riots - so much commotion - hardly any cultural relevance.

3.) Every Garba begins with prayer of Ma Durga and this dance is said to be performed for the goddess. I wonder if ever the goddess told mortal beings to "wear some sort of sexy back less dress for ladies and scare crow like dress for men and then dance whole night to make her happy."

The money and time spent on real festival of Ma durga is something like :-

Money on Garba : Money on Pooja :: 10000: 0.01
time doing garba : time doing pooja : : 9 hours : 6 mins

4.) Then this must be an interesting fact -
" The sale of condoms increases drastically during the garba season !!! "
check out google for real facts and figures, here is one such new from DNA :-

www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1195829

I am fascinated by the whole hyporcricy in our society but neways, now I understand why they call a dance - " Khelo" coz its actually a big play - a foreplay, may be.

Parah Salin

India vs. America

I went to meet with the principal of a tiny school (which he is run on the terrace of his house) to discuss the next science demo that our company trying to put together. He is a very good example of an achiever by keeping things small. He runs a couple of businesses which includes an internet browsing center and using the money runs the school that mainly caters to the nearby families of the lower economic income. He is also a funny guy who frequently takes a satirical looks at social problems that irritated me!

During our conversation I realized that he has some social consciousness when he revealed that he writes frequently to Deccan Chronicle suggesting traffic improvements and a voluntary member of a group (don't remember the name) that assists traffic police. So, I tried to take his opinions on public urination and how to solve it. He suggested people aren't ready to pay a rupee for unrination and two for defecating, especially when it is not a taboo to do so in public. But he expressed the "not a taboo" part beautifully!

"This is India, not America! In America, people can kiss in public, but not piss in public. Here we can piss in public..but unfortunately we can't kiss in public"