Navratri! Nine nights of women, song and dance, with men joining in to share the joy and laughter. A Gujarati folk dance now celebrated across India, especially western India, with a fervour that will not be matched for the rest of the year.

Rajkot, on the western edges of India, too erupts on these nine nights preceding Dasera. The largest city of Saurashtra, has been going gaga for the past week, as the video clips of garba and dandia will clearly reveal.

And unlike the other large cities, even as Rajkot slowly comes under Bombay's kitsch culture, it retains much of its old flavour, traditions and grandeur which have made Navratri one of Gujarat’s greatest show of culture.

For more on Navratri, see the Gujarati section.

Video credits:
Camera: Deepak Kamalia and Ashesh Mer
Coordinator: Kinner Acharya

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