Vasant Panchami, one of the most auspicious days for new beginnings, marked the initiation of people’s movement in city
Purple was the colour. Dance was the expression and fusion was the dress code and contemporary music was the prime tune – that set the right ambiance for Ahmedabad Rising that happened on Thursday at Gujarat Vidyapith.
The Amdavadi crowd displayed their true grit, colourful attires and firm spirit at the rising event to support to the cause. More than 1,500 students and above 1,500 adult participants attended the flagship garba event on Valentine’s Day evening to express their wrath over the violence against the women. The event was a local collaborative programme linked with One Billion Rising – a series of demonstrative protests taking place at 164 countries to support the cause.
In keeping with the global parameters the local demonstrative protest was extremely powerful and was attended by more than 3,500 people.The large crowds consisted of multi-cultural and multi-lingual people including foreigners from US, Europe, Australia, France, Amdabadi people, visitors from surrounding rural areas of Amdavad. The panch rangi crowd shared the passion and matched their dance movements in perfect sync with various genes of music played at the programme.
The types of music played at the event mainly included garba, bhangra, pop music and both Indian classical and western classical tunes. The notes merged into creating a novel contemporary music fit to serve as spirited heralding tunes for the people’s movement to begin.
“Garba is dancing and moving in circular pattern which gives everyone their own space,” said noted danseuse and one of the initiators of the movement Mallika Sarabhai. “And no one leads or follows. All dancers are on equal par and that is what we want in our society. We have made a first baby step towards that grand aim with today’s programme,” she said. Sarabhai was impeccably dressed in a purple sharara made of crushed cotton having khadi-print.
Many young students flanked purple shirts and kurtis leaving aside the mushy reds of the Valentine’s Day for the event. Some participants chose to wear typical Gujarati saris for the occasion.
The commonly noticed dress code amongst the young participants was the jeans with tunics. “All danced with enormous enthusiasm,” said film maker Yadavan Chandran. “I am touched to witness grand opening of the people’s movement which has long way to go. This garba programme indeed served as an apt beginning,” he added.
