Garba Night – Festival Season Kicks off Amongst Indian Americans of Houston

Saturday night was a colorful soiree at the Stafford Civic Center in Stafford, Texas as hundreds of Indians and Americans gathered to kick off the festival season of Diwali and Dusherra with a Navratri celebration. Ladies wore the traditional garba attire and men looked sharp in sherwanis and kurta pajamas.

This sell out event was hosted by The Indo American Forum of Fort Bend to celebrate Navratri with friends and family, a nine day celebration popular in the State of Gujarat and Mumbai, with the traditional dance ‘garba‘ and ‘dandiya rass‘.

The evening picked up with guests mixing and mingling, practicing dance moves, taking part in the arti ceremony and enjoying Indian street food fair. “Our basic goal each year is to draw more people and have the younger generation participate,” says Shashi Jajoo. Tanya Bhadra Pal said that she has been participating in the Navratri event since she was in college and now her daughters enjoy this event. “A wonderful time for friends and family to get together, dress up and have fun,” says Tanya.

Spotted dancing and participating in the various activities of the evening Rick Pal, Shefali Jhaveri, Harish Jajoo, Asha and Pankaj Dhume, Luckmi Pawa, Tanaz and Chesley Charles Choudhury, Jay Iyer, Arzan Gonda, Sonal and Subhodh Bhuchar. While everyone was in their traditional best outfit, Lights Camera Action spotted Soni Vaswani Karamchandani as the ‘Dandiya Diva’. Her outfit set her apart with bold mirror work and a form filled lehenga style sari.

[galleryview id=174 showPanels=true showCaptions=true showFilmstrip=true panelWidth=565 panelHeight=520 panelScale=nocrop transitionSpeed=800 transitionInterval=0 fadePanels=true overlayPosition=top overlayOpacity=0.2 frameWidth=60 frameHeight=60 filmstripPosition=bottom pointerSize=6 frameScale=crop frameGap=5 frameOpacity=0.3 easingValue=swing navTheme=dark startFrame=1 pauseOnHover=true]