Aye haaaalo! That’s the call of the season right now, as India and Indians everywhere celebrates the festival of Navratri! And you know what this means, right? Garba, dandiya, chaniya choli and Falguni Pathak memes are in the air!
Now if you think Gujarat, with its 10-day Navratri vacation, is the only state to be gripped by the garba fever, then you’ve got another thing coming! Wherever there be Gujaratis, or actually just Indians who love to dance, there be garba and dandiya!
Industrialist Anand Mahindra seems to be enjoying this Navratri fever in the air. Recently, he waxed eloquent about a video of dancers performing some amazing garba steps across iconic Mumbai locations to celebrate Navratri!
Navratri in Mumbai!Nothing brilliant about the camerawork in this video, but the dancers are so colourful & spin with such energy it’s hard not to get into the mood. In fact their routines are so athletic I think I may abandon one of my exercise routines & do the garba instead… pic.twitter.com/9ngmtkCnI5
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) October 14, 2018
The video sure put Mahindra in the mood to put on his own dancing shoes and answer the “Aye Haaalo” call himself!
But if that wasn’t enough, the industrialist might have just gotten another dose of motivation, this time not from youngsters but from the senior citizens!
Anand Mahindra shared another video of elderly women in wheelchairs playing garba with full enthusiasm and joy, and it is bound to melt anyone’s heart!
Yesterday I tweeted a video of young, athletic garba dancers in Mumbai that boosted my energy. Today I received this video & I share it since it lifted my spirits even higher. Simply because it displays generosity & athleticism of the heart… pic.twitter.com/gr5WvW8zFH
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) October 15, 2018
It’s the sweetest thing, isn’t it?
Now, we did a little digging and discovered that the above video is actually from last year’s Navratri! It was taken at the My Indian Nursing Home in New Jersey, USA during Navratri 2017.
But here’s the thing! Even this year, the nursing home celebrated Navratri, and the patients did play some dandiya this time as well!
The nursing home’s official Facebook page shared some photos of elderly citizens in wheelchairs, sitting in a circle, with the dandiya poised in their hands!
Isn’t it endearing to watch that their enthusiasm?