My love for Garba can be traced to the fact that , the first 15 years of my life was spent living in a 'Bank of Baroda' colony where 50% of the 250 families could trace their roots to the Indian State of Gujarat.
The 9 days of Navratri was when the 11 appartment blocks in this colony would come alive.
The building girls would meet to dress up… the ‘chowk’ (the quadrangle in the middle of the buildings) would be cleaned…and decorated …and the night would start with an Aarti and devotional songs with a slow beat sung by one gujju uncle in the building …and gradually as the night progressed Falguni Pathak screaming from a loudspeaker takes over…some where along the way the sticks appear and dandiya takes over where garba left off…

From the time I was a 5 year old toddler trying to manage her red ghaghra choli (traditional indian dress) and trying not to get run over by the older kids,I have loved the energy of Navratri..and I never missed a single one ever since…This year however will be the second consecutive one where im looking for company to go play, since my friends have either moved out of mumbai or 'overgrown it'...still looking.