That night we went out to celebrate the festival, Navrati. This festival, Navrati lasts for nine days. At the place they were serving some really strong stuff called Pang, you would drink this but it made you feel drunk. It looked like green milk, but this liquid had marijuana init so I was allowed it. It was celebrated in the streets, unlike England, where it is celebrated in big halls. The music was traditional but in England they have Indian pop music. The men were wearing tight tops with like a skirt stuck to it, with really tight trousers. The women were wearing sarees.
At the beginning people pray to the god by hinging a hyme then they all move in a big circle clapping and singing hyme, this is called Rasgarba. This will happen for a couple hours depending how long it lasts for that night, because different places have different timing of celebrating the festival. After that people will grab a partner and two special types of stick, they will stand parallel to each other in lines and they will hit the sticks in a special pattern. After they have done that pattern they then will move one place left and do the same with next person, this is called Dandyaras.
We finished there at half past two in the morning. I was tired and the next morning at half past eight I had to catch a plane to a village called Jamnagar in Gujarat. I went to bed at three o’clock and I very tired the next morning.
We landed at ten o’clock in Jamnagar. My uncle came to pick us up in his car and from there we went to his house. I tried to fall asleep in the car because of the night before. The roads were really bumpy which did not help when I was trying to get some sleep.
My Holiday In India cont…
I went out during the afternoon, shopping. I came back at five o’clock in the afternoon and I was really tired, so went to bed for a couple of hours then I had to go to place where Navrati is celebrated in Jamnagar.
I got back up at eight o’clock and got to the celebration at half past nine and I was on time to start the Dandyaras. My cousin was my partner. The music was traditional so it started to get a bit boring. I stopped playing at half past nine, but if the music was something that I liked then I could of done it to the end (three o’clock in the morning). I did the same thing for five more days.
That Sunday afternoon I had to catch a plane to Delhi. In Delhi we stayed in a hotel but we were always out. During the day we were out shopping and at night we were at a hall celebrating Navrati. The surprising thing was that we actually found a place where Navrati was in hall and they played music that I liked. I was there until four and five o’clock for the last three nights that it was celebrated.
The last night of Navrati was my last night in Delhi because the next evening I had a flight to Bombay airport where I had to wait for an hour to catch a plane to England at Heathrow airport. I got to England at half past four in the morning and I was really tired so we decided to stay the night at my Mum’s brother’s house for the night.
