India Festival 2010

India Festival 2010
Continued from previous page
After a miles’ drive around the temple area, we were back to the ICC building. We were tired and hungry and
slowly strolled into the dining room. There was a long wait line of devotees to be served, luckily they split the lines
into two separate lines. After we got our food and started to enjoy the Mahaprasad and other delicacies. Mmmm…
Yummy!!!
It was almost evening as we sat down to watch our Guest and President present their takes on the festivities
and my Mom was presented with a souvenir for her contribution as a volunteer. A lot of people clapped and we
were proud of her. Finally we ambled back to our car to drive home. It was a long day of Rath Yatra but believe me,
it’s a Big Experience!!!. We shall go again next year to experience the festivities and receive Lord Jagannath’s kind
blessings for leading a blissful, joyous and prosperous life. Chant with me and my brother, Shivram… Hare Rama,
Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna …Hare Hare …
BRED FROM AFAR
As we’ve seen in our lives, each hought is an
offshoot of another thought, each step in our life
is reached by having stepped off of another, each
inspiration is the culmination of a seed planted from
a prior experience. One such experience led me to
what has today become a significant part of my life.
One November night in 2003, I stood at the side of
the state of the very event where you received this
book. While anxiously waiting with my teamates o
perfom at the 16th Annual India Festival compeition,
all I could see from the stage were the tops of the
heads of towering guys and girls spinning atop
human stunts I had never seen before. Because the
stage was raised hight off the floor to the level of my
head, I could barely see what was going on, except for
those few things that caught enough of my attention
and curiosity. the only glimpse I could get of those
dancers was when they ran off the stage, around the
back, and back onto the stage from the opposite sides
they came from to continue their dance in a new and
suprising formation. The elaborate costumes they
wore were ones I had never seen before, the energy
they danced with I have never experienced before,
the great amount of connection I felt even without
seeing most of their dance, I had never felt before. I
could only hear the audience roaring and cheering at
a volume that I hadn’t heard for an other team that
night. It was only when the show’s DVD came in the
mail some time later did I see the entirety of their
awe-inspiring dance and learn who they were... Gator
Bhangra. From that moment, I knew that when I
attended the University of Florida, I would audition
for this most exciting team, even though I had never
done Bhangra before.
I was infinitely excited when I found out after
auditioning my freshman year that I had made the
team! I was able to partcipate with this team that
had inspired me to step outside my comfort level of
dance that i had created for myself throughout my
years of learning and performing various styles of
Indian dance. I met so many amazing people and
lifelong friends through my team and experienced
the feeling of comaraderie and teamwork that I had
only ever imagined. I also learned of a world that
is almost underground to mainstream society, what
we’ve grown to call the “Bhangra Circuit” in the past
few years. There are countless Bhangra teams and
academies all around the United States and Canada
that share heir love for he dance form. Compeitions
www.gujaratisamaj.org 41 GUJARATI SAMAJ OF TAMPA BAY