Navratri Garba Celebration Continues This Weekend

The Indo-American Cultural Foundation of Central Jersey's (IACFNJ) Navratri Garba at Crossroads South Middle School in South Brunswick kicked off with more than 1,200 people attendance on Oct. 5.  

The IACFNJ organizers and committee members are working very hard to have four more days of celebration on Oct. 11, 12, 18 and 19, 2013, from 8 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.  This weekend Garba will be at Crossroads South Middle School in Monmouth Junction, while on Oct. 18 and 19, Garba will be at South Brunswick High School in Monmouth Junction.   

The Navratri celebration marks the festival of nine nights during which Hindus worship Goddess of Shakti Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati.  Hindus believe Goddess Durga destroys all the evil propensities lurking the minds of her devotees, Goddess Lakshmi implants divine qualities in the devotee’s minds and Goddess Saraswati bestows true knowledge to her devotees.  

The tenth day also known as Vijay Dashami, commemorates the victory of good over evil.  

IACFNJ Garba is getting very popular among young generation of South Asian decent in South Brunswick and surrounding areas of highly populated Asians in North Brunswick, Franklin Park, Princeton, Princeton Junction, Monroe, East Brunswick and East and West Windsor.   

Once again, famous group of Mahesh Mehta and his talented singers from Bollywood and local singers and artists of Entertainment Unlimited rocked the stage with famous old and new live singing of garbas, dandiya tunes, famous sanedo and bhangaras for non-stop live entertainment for more than six hours on Oct. 5.  

Very young to middle aged crowd had lots of fun to perform Garba in their traditional colorful and designer outfits.  The area's cultural diversity was witnessed on the dance floor where the attendees were not only Gujaratis but from all over India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Shri Lanka and other neighboring countries and high school kids of various ethnic and cultural back grounds which is rarely seen at any other Garba celebration in the country.  

The Goddess Amba Maa’s divine and traditional Aarti was performed and attended by thousands at mid-night and sweets and dry fruits Prasadam was distributed to all attendees.  The center stage was decorated with Goddess Amba Maa’s statue in a temple setting to have the atmosphere felt like divine and traditional celebration like back home in Gujarat.  

The cafeteria had authentic Indian food stall of various mouth-watering Indian delicacies and other variety of food at reasonable prices.     

The local business entrepreneurs, community leaders and South Brunswick Deputy Mayor Chris Killmurray attended the event and wish everyone a Happy Navratri.  He congratulated IACFNJ dedicated committee members for organizing such a wonderful event in South Brunswick.  

The best costume and best dance prizes were given to two selected winners which was sponsored by local business in North Brunswick, Fashion Unlimited.

The IACFNJ dedicated and enthusiastic Executive Committee and other committee members and volunteers under the leadership of President Tushar Patel, Chairman Mahesh Patel, Vice-President Hitesh Patel, Secretary Deven Patel and Treasurer Mac Shah continued to work very hard to have four more days of Garba on next two weekends.  

For further information about the event or advertisement and sponsorship or stall booking, please contact Tushar Patel at 848-391-0499, Mac Shah at 848-667-0745 or Hitesh Patel at 732-718-5238 or visit organization website at www.IACFNJ.org or e-mail at iacfnj@yahoo.com.