Saturday 13 October, 2007

A song and dance about Dandiya

The other day, I was handed a couple of passes for a 'Dandiya Nite' in the city. Having grown up on a healthy dose of Dandiya during childhood days in Bombay and further 'Garba'ed away on campus during all the college years in Ahmedabad, it seemed like a good idea to put the passes to use and make a night of it with friends (night here in Bangalore of course meaning till 11 pm when city authorities in their collective wisdom have decided for us that we should be in bed). Admittedly, I entered the arena with dollops of skepticism, but even I didn't bargain for the disastrous scene we found.
Admittedly too, I am a trifle spoilt. Garba on campus was a beautiful affair - the traditional music was haunting and the dance sublime poetry in motion. Even the two left feet types would have found it hard to stop at mere feet tapping. Ahmedabad had very little going for it on any front - and it is a crying shame that 'Cultural Stink' is synonymous with Gujarat today - but it had Garba for redemption.
So what made the evening so terrible - a combination of Punjabi music with Dandiya and Gujarati music with Bhangra being danced to it (at least attempted with all sincerity). Why was that so bad - well, for starters, even if one were to leave the grouse of any purist out of it (no mean feat that), can you imagine Bhangra with Dandiya sticks - one so does not want ones eyes gouged out! Neither did most people know what to do, nor did they seem too thrilled about whatever it was that they were trying to do...and they still couldn't be bothered to find out what they were in fact supposed to do. Such a travesty of Dandiya!
One of my expat friends came up with something interesting. He wanted to know if there are any classes one can join to learn traditional Indian folk dances. That one definitely stumped us. Where indeed can one learn Bhangra, Garba, Dandiya, Ghoomar, Lavani, Cheraw, Bihu or any of the other numerous dance forms? We are knowledgeable enough about where we can learn Salsa, Rumba, Tango, Jive and Waltz....and perhaps also Bharatnatyam, Odissi, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, etc.,...note, I say perhaps ....but, our social dances....sorry, no idea! At the risk of exposing my own ignorance, I'd say this instruction would be very hard to come by here - and I'm not counting Bollywood dancing a la Shiamak Davar stables.
The highlight of the evening - fortifying ourselves at one of the 24 hour coffee shops afterwards. That was indeed badly needed!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems as though Hindustan has been 'progressing' so rapidly, it's already skipped passed over modernism to pomo. Corrupted purity, simultaneous rejection and nostagia for an ideal past, fusion of contradictory and incongruous cultural systems, cynicism and satire... Can you garba to the Sex Pistols???

Anonymous said...

If you go to Delhi, you would probably find people bhangra to the Sex Pistols also ;-)

Not completely connected, but am reminded of an incident way back when I was in College in delhi. As I was making my way out of a highly entertaining Deep Purple concert, I overheard a group of 'Oye Punjabi' boys. One said, "bada changa concert tha yaar". The other replied, "Khaakh changa tha yaar... November Rain toh bajaya hi nahin".

Bystander