IIW Inspiring Indian Women in partnership with NCGO (National Council of Gujarati organizations UK) in association with BWIS (British Women in Sarees) presented,THE BIG GARBA
Purpose of this grand celebrations was to create awareness about the Garba to gen next, to tell the world about Garba and showcase the ethnic costume, to celebrate our cultural heritage, to bring British Indians together and show oneness, to celebrate inclusion of Garba as an Intangible Heritage by UNESCO, to bring opportunity for the various dance schools as well as ladies to make a difference to the society and express pride in their ethnicity.
The celebrations started at King’s Cross station on 14th April. The following Dance Schools participated on the day -Dance to inspire by Angelique Pervez, Nina Choreography, SSGD Sonal’s School of Garba dance, Neha Sachin’s Sarjan Nritya Academy, Harrow care plus and BWIS.
Next was at ‘The Scoop at More’ near London Tower Bridge on 21st April. The participating groups were, British Women in Sarees (BWIS), D Bolly Dance by Dhruv Chauhan and Dimple Agarwal, IIW North India Global led by Sunita Chaubey and Rhythm Academy
Finale was at Piccadilly Circus/ Leicester Square on 1st May (Gujarat Day) Performances by London School of Garba, Sagar Group Hounslow and British Women in Sarees.
Special Mention for support- Namaste Kingston, SEEEFI (Socio economic environment education foundation initiative) Ujjwal Banga, IDUK (Indian Diaspora in UK) Hirdesh Gupta, Andrea Santoni, NACHA UK (NRI Association of Chhattisgarh ), Vishv Umiya Foundation, GCS Brighton, Vimal Odedara NCGO, Krishna Pujara’s Enfield Saheli, Luitporia Nasoni (Chinu Kishore) , Pink Pearls Photography, Kranthi Roy, Blue Drapes Photography, Gargi Sequira from Richy Gargi Music, Women 2 Women (Geeta Shah), National Patidar Samaj (Pravin Amin), Jitubhai Patel – Sojitra Samaj, Longest serving Hindu Met Police Officer Purnima Raval, Vandana Joshi and Bharat Sachania.
For the first time the British Indians came together in the biggest of its kind in the History of UK and Europe.
Volunteers behind the scenes were Rashmi Mishra, Shweta Khanna, Jay Desai, Neha Premji, Yashma Bakshi, Anjali Sharma, Neha Gupta, Seema Khandelwal, Rajashree Vyas, Sarika Handa, Soniya Joshi, Darshana Shah, Heena Zala, Shipra Gomes, Betania Fernandes
The entire celebrations were an amazing show of unity and great teamwork at display. Everyone was part of this in some way or the other morally or physically as the series of Garba celebrations continued, each of the community organizations and the various enthusiastic performers joined in support to show their cultural pride.
As the world stopped to see and feel the traditional Indian folk galore –A sense of ‘mission accomplished’, engulfed the hearts of those participating.
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The work IIW and associated organisations are doing to promote our culture not only by wearing sarees of vivid colours as well as show casing garba and traditional Indian festivals is remarkable. Tower Bridge, Kings Cross stations and venues of great importance and appeal and may a tourists from all over the world can see what India stands for. Well done!