Creative Aspect Of Garba

The third one is something I wrote during Garba time. It’s style is modeled on the writings of Albert Camus and to an extent Raja Rao. It is a figment of my imagination and has nothing to do with Technology Management. But for those of you who love reading and writing it may be of some value. So here it goes

A bad start. The pen has failed us once again. Both me and you. The ink is probably dried. What instigated this sudden spark to write is utterly undecipherable at this moment. It is as if the search is for a hidden code. A missing link in developmental biology if you want to call it that.

Maybe, the past few days have been eventful. Indeed, they have been. The whole environment has changed. The approach is new and different. The change is multidimensional. Teachers’, strangers yet warm. Environment, new and bustling with youth. The surroundings old and having a sense of eternity. The occasion
‘Navratri’ or ‘nine nights’ of celebration brimming with eternal beauty.

All these make up a classic combination indeed. The youth dressed in attires as old as time itself dance to a cacophony of harmonious disturbances. The dancing is a cosmic creation. A perfect symmetry if I were a scientist. But wait a second the old are in the frame too. Relying more on experience than on muscles they create in a word- absolute magic.

The youth are no less if no more. They start the prayer by performing at the Aarti. The essence of the dance, its monotony. People dancing in circles of eternity, never ending just like life itself.

The dance is performed to an invisible to an invisible tune which can be heard by only the practiced year. The bodily movements are slow yet very well coordinated. The attire is royal. The young combine with the old to give rise to the new and the different. A very artistic exercise indeed which emphasizes a highly developed culture.

Anybody willing to dance can join in the eternal circle. A marvel of human effort the exercise is an attempt to see the present through the eyes of the past. It represents a dream if I were Coleridge, a dream that persists even after it has faded.
Clear yet dreamy the senses are left astounded by the sheer beauty of the cosmic dance. ‘Garba as it is called in Gujarati represents a struggle between co-ordination and the overall effect6 it produces on the dancer and the viewer i.e., transformation. Both are to enjoy. No not enjoy rather take ‘Ras’ in the ‘Ras Garba’. The viewer and the seen are transformed into something new and different. This is the whole of the art of garba. In a word infinite, yet played within a small area. Complex yet co coordinated to create a shift in perception. Using the old and new to create a cherished tradition. Unparallel beauty of the Garba should be appealing to the aesthetic tastes of all generations to come. May it continue just like its eternal circles

Sankalp Sharma[MTM 1808]