By Charmi Shah
NHSF Roehampton President
To some, Garba is just a dance that is done during the festival of Navratri. To the Hindu students of London, it is a passion, a craze, an infatuation, and this was demonstrated during London Zone Charity Garba 2014. Being exclusively larger than last year with 15 universities, this night united 1000 students who danced the night away doing garba and dandiya raas.
With the motivation from our London Zone coordinator, Jaimal Patel and team member Rajen Jotangia, they put in fantastic efforts to ensure the event they envisioned is immaculately coordinated and projected. Immense thoughts, planning and efforts went into this event as the garba committee collated months ahead, to decide on every aspect of how the night will go. Some things went smoothly and swiftly, such as ticket designing, dandiya and food stall arrangements, whereas some of the larger tasks, such as choosing a venue and band, took a little more determination and time to orchestrate. Through every inspirational quote delivered by Jaimal throughout, these tasks were soon made easy and arranged as the garba committee worked together, as one family – “Coming together is the beginning but sticking together and helping each other is what makes us a family.” As newer or smaller chapters, BPP Law School, Roehampton and Royal Holloway felt really privileged to have the opportunity to be actively involved in the planning of this event.
Time flew by as it was already the day all of our hard work to come into action. Set up of the hall promptly commenced: on one end, beautiful decorations were being hung up in the hall and on the other, stalls for NHSF Roots, learning and sewa – capturing and reminding everyone the first and foremost reason behind the event. An important aspect of Hindu dharma was encapsulated through the sewa stall, as cans of food were being donated towards Navratri Food Bank Collection. Setting up the idol of Krishna in the center was the simplest yet most fulfilling task, where intricately designed aarti plates of members started surrounding the idol.
The band had arrived and carried out a sound check soon after. The music blasted out of the speakers and every head in the room turned and just stood for a minute – this was the moment we all realised that London Zone Charity Garba 2014 was going to be phenomenal night. In no time, people started arriving in beautiful traditional outfits ready to get their raas on! With the music in full swing, massive circles of garba formed and the night had begun. Sanedo and ramjhaniyu were definitely getting every person in the room hyped, leading up to the best and most anticipated, dandiya! Wanting it to carry on forever, everyone played enthusiastically and energetically! This was a night not to forget.
London Zone team aimed to bring NHSF London Zone together to celebrate Navratri and raise money for our national charity, Divya Sewa Foundation and they were able to achieve this thought the help of garba committee and all the attendees. On behalf of the entire garba committee: Jaimal, Rajen, Meera, Chandni, Ekta, Hershil, Kapish, Raj, Rico, Aman, Ritesh, Pooja and myself, thank you to each and every one who helped make this garba a remarkable night! See you all next year!