Navaratri celebrations kick off, Hyderabad swirls to garba beats

Hyderabad: The first day of Navaratri began with great enthusiasm and fervour in the city on Monday. The people were seen dressed in traditional attire, participated in huge numbers, dancing to Garba and Dandiya beats.

Minal Vakharia , president of Telangana Gujarati Samaj, said, on the first day we have received huge crowd and in the coming eight days we are expecting more. We are organising this festival for the past 15 years in a bid to keep the Gujarati tradition intact and to inculcate in the younger generations the importance of Navaratri. As part of the celebrations, falahari dishes and prasad were distributed among those who have been fasting.

Saloni Jain, organiser of Navkar Navaratri Utsav, said, " ss this year we have planned to celebrate Navaratri in a grand manner and on the first we have received a good response. As for providing an extraordinary experience to our participants and event is been organised in an air-conditioned hall at Classic Gardens, Secunderabad.

"For past eight years I have been playing garba but due to Covid last two years I could not play but this time on the first day had a blast, said Prakash, member of Gujarati Community. Last two years we could not celebrate the Navarati whole heartily and being the first day of Navarati , we could see a colourfull performance, said Aditi Shroff , another member of Gujarati Community."