In actuality, I am quite disturbed by my generations’ lack of knowledge about our culture (myself included). Most of us blame it on our parents lack of success to pass on the traditions but the harsh truth of the matter is that most of us are not really interested in searching for it unless it's (it being the information or cultural quirk or tradition etc.) put right in front of us.
The event mentioned above is actually an event embedded deep in our cultures past and it holds so much meaning but none of us stop to understand it. I have been doing it for years and I still can’t remember the names of the gods we dance around or even what they stand for! (Now that’s pathetic.) This beautiful tradition is now only used to show American’s the extravagance of the Indian culture as well as for a fun social outing to make us American-Indians feel like we do actually belong to the culture.
This image was found in google images under "gujarati samaj garba." The gujurati samaj is pinpointed on the map - it's one of the places people can go to do garba.5331 Royal Woods Pkwy
Tucker, GA 30084
I think the message this picture is conveying is that garba, especially at the gujarati samaj, is extremely popular and exciting and colorful. The audience must be people who live around this location who are interested in garba and are wanting a fun place to go participate at. This image is so effective because it is not staged at all. This is actually what happens at garba! The only technique the photographer used was to get as many people in the picture as possible.
The reason I feel that this picture supports my claim is that on the same token, if you type in "india garba" or something to that effect, the pictures that come up show so much more culture than a bare room packed to the brim with people. Also, part of garba involves dancing in circles around the gods; you can barely even see the murti (statues of gods that is placed in the center of the hall).
As the years go by I fear that these traditions will truly lose all meaning. Deep and meaniful things, like the bindi (indian dot on forehead), will lose all of its significance and just become an accessory. My generation really knows very little about the culture and that small amount of knowledge will get harder and harder to pass down. (That's how most supersticions were formed! --in my opinion anyway. Ex. "don't clip your nails at night" Reason: they didn't have light so the nails could hurt someone if they just fell all over the place.) Regardless, navratri has merely become a social gathering to imitate, as best as possible, one of India's more glorious traditions.
