EXPRESSING JOY IN A GRAND COLOURFUL DISPLAY
CELEBRATING INDIA’S CULTURAL HERITAGE IN THE HEART OF LONDON
(THE ASIAN INDEPENDENT)-
IIW Inspiring Indian Women in partnership with NCGO (National Council of Gujarati organisations UK) in association with BWIS (British Women in Sarees) presented – THE BIG GARBA
Purpose of this grand celebrations was to create awareness about the Garba to gen next, to tell the world about Garba and showcase the ethnic costume, to celebrate our cultural heritage, to bring British Indians together and show oneness, to celebrate inclusion of Garba as an Intangible Heritage by UNESCO, to bring opportunity for the various dance schools as well as ladies to make a difference to the society and express pride in their ethnicity
The celebrations started from King’s Cross station 14th April. The following Dance Schools participated on the day -Dance to inspire by Angelique Pervez, Nina Choreography, SSGD Sonal’s School of Garba dance, Neha Sachin’s Sarjan Nritya Academy, Harrow care plus and BWIS
Next was at ‘The Scoop at More’ near London Tower Bridge on 21st April. The participating groups were, British Women in Sarees (BWIS), D Bolly Dance by Dhruvil Chauhan and Dimple Agarwal, IIW North India Global led by Sunita Chaubey and Rhythm Academy
Finale was at Piccadilly Circus/ Leicester Square on 1st May (Gujarat Day) Performances by London School of Garba, Sagar Group Hounslow and British Women in Sarees.
Special Mention for support- Namaste Kingston, SEEEFI (Socio economic environment education foundation initiative) Ujjwal Banga, IDUK (Indian Diaspora in UK) Hirdesh Gupta, Andrea Santoni, NACHA UK (NRI Association of Chattisgarh ), Vishv Umiya Foundation, GCS Brighton, Vimal Odedara NCGO, Krishna Pujara’s Enfield Saheli, Luitporia Nasoni (Chinu Kishore) , Pink Pearls Photography, Kranthi Roy, Blue Drapes Photography, Gargi Sequira from Richy Gargi Music, Women 2 Women (Geeta Shah), National Patidar Samaj (Pravin Amin), Jitubhai Patel – Sojitra Samaj, Longest serving Hindu Met Police Officer Purnima Raval, Vandana Joshi and Bharat Sachania.
Other organisations which extended their moral support were Kadwa Patidar Samaj, . , Anjie Chhapia’s Harrow Care, CamCareUK Registered Charity, Asian Foundation for Help, Brent Indian Association, Daalia’s IBUK Indian Bengali’s Association, Anirban Mandal’s Heritage Bengal Global, Gyan Sharma’s Sangam UK, Bihari Connect, International Dogra Society, Nilesh Joshi’s Sanatan Shakti, MA TV UK, Rajasthan Association UK, WellbeingOn CIC, Shree Jagannatha Society UK, Odisha society of UK, Haryana Association in UK, IndiansVoice .co.uk, Sutton Friends, Healing Our Earth, United Assam Association UK, London Indian Elder Group- Sumantrai Desai, Gujarati Culture Society: Brighton – Hove, Joydeep Das’ EEL (Entrepreneurship Entertainment, Lifestyle), Suresh Gupta’s India Welfare Society- Registered Charity, Sanatan Sanstha UK (SSUK), Chaa Gaam Nagrick Mandal UK, VediccaLondon, Vedic Cultural Association, INSA Indian National Students Association, Lyca Gold, Chelmsford Hindu Society, Palan Foundation, Oshwal Association of the UK, Jharkhand Network UK, Dhun (Made for music), Lohana community North Harrow, Give- Mental Health & Well-being Charity www.givesurrey.org, Himachali Link UK, SmadFun – fundraising ‘not for profit’ for education, Bengali Hindu Adarsha Sangha BHAS, UP Girls in UK, International Khattri Mahasabha, Friends of Madhya Pradesh – UK Chapter, Hindu Cultural Center, Voice of Dogra, ‘Indian Heritage Centre UK’ https://indianheritagecentre.com/, Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora, Laughter Yoga Kalpana Doshi, Mangalam UK, Leading London to a better tomorrow, Kala Utsav.
For the first time the British Indians – Non Gujaratis, Gujaratis, non-performers, Home Makers, Professionals unite in the biggest of its kind in the History of UK and Europe!! Volunteers behind the scenes were Rashmi Mishra, Shweta Khanna, Jay Desai, Neha Premgi, Yashma Bakshi, Anjali Sharma, Neha Gupta, Seema Khandelwal, Rajashree Vyas, Sarika Handa, Soniya Joshi, Darshana Shah, Heenba Zala, Shipra Gomes, Betania Fernandes
The entire celebrations were an amazing show of unity and a great team work at display. Everyone was part of this in some way or the other morally or physically as the series of Garba celebrations continued, each of the community organisations and the various enthusiastic performers joined in support to show their cultural pride.
As the world stopped to see and feel the traditional Indian folk galore –A sense of ‘mission accomplished’, engulfed the hearts of those participating.
