Hyderabad: Over 2,000 Hyderabadis celebrated the commencement of Navaratri Utsav on a scintillating note at the Imperial Gardens here on Monday.
Dressed in sparkling and traditional Gujarati attire, people were seen enjoying to dhol beats of garba and dandiya. Persistent light showers did not dampen their spirits.
Competitive themes were set for this year’s utsav. They include best pagdi, dupatta, best decorated kada, chudi, Bindi, best decorated props while dancing, best floral jewellery, best decorated payal, best father-daughter jodi, mother-son jodi, best two females, and best two males, among many others.
The Utsav has been organised at many places in the city. Some temples are also organising an hour’s event for free.
“We wait for these nine days to dance to dhol beats and garba. We forget all our tensions as this is the only time of the year we get together with all our friends,” said Shubham Goyal who was accompanied by Asha Poorna, Navin Shah, Kushal Doshi and Aanchal Mehta.
U. Arpita Kalandi along with Mayank Undhana, Ankita U. and Ayushi Sakhiya came all the way from Gujarat to celebrate the festival in Hyderabad.
“We have come from Gujarat to spend this Navaratri with family. It’s sad that it had to rain like this and we had to stop garba midway. We will consider this as a warm up for the next eight days. We even danced in the rain, which is realisation of a childhood dream!”
It was a family outing for Pratima and Mukesh Sampath, Urmit, Shivam, Mihir, Manisha, Sudha, Mihir , Rahul and Dhara. “The food was good. We thought that we would dance our hearts out after meals. However, we could perform garba only for about 30 minutes. Rain will not kill our spirits. We will come back tomorrow.”
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