Here, the middle-class dances to garba beats in ‘free’ spirit

Nagpur: The garba glitz is in all its glory and people of all age groups are gyrating to the dhol beats while chanting ‘Jaikara sherawali da, bol sache darbar ki jay’ and ‘Jai Mata Di’. But unlike major garba events where there is paid entry, here the access is free.
The venue is Chakradhar Nagar ground in south Nagpur and it’s the second year of the Raas Garba Mahotsav organized by Shrimati Radhika Tai Pandav Charitable Trust and Swargiya Purshottam (Bapu Mate) Vayamshala.
Girish Pandav, founder president of the trust, says the motto is to provide the best garba experience to all, specially the middle class for whom it has become difficult to afford entry tickets of paid garbas. “Ours is an open garba. People from different communities come and play garba. Today we have Punjabi, Maharashtrian, South Indian and Gujarati groups,” he said.
Akansha Marathe, a college student, finds it one of the best places for garba with friends. “Some organisers are charging more than ₹1,000 per day entry fee which we can’t afford. But here, our parents don’t have to worry about buying tickets when they are already burdened with other expenses,” he said.
Besides Chakradhar Nagar, the trust organises garba simultaneously at Old Subhedar Layout, Bhagwan Nagar, Reshimbagh, Manewada, Hudkeshwar, Nandanvan and Ramna Maroti, informed organising committee member Akshay Hete.
Another organising committee member Mahesh Bante said the daily garba participants at Chakradhar Nagar ground are capped at 2,200. “Ten prizes are given in different categories like best garba player, best group, best senior citizen, best kid, best couple etc,” he said.