Members of the Coal Field Gujrati Samaj are organizing garba at their respective homes, and posting photos and videos on WhatsApp groups to foster the collective nature of this celebration.

Talking to The Telegraph Online, Yamesh Trivedi, former president of the Samaj, said, “We are not organizing a group or collective garba this year at any of the designated places because of the pandemic. To maintain tradition, we are celebrating at our respective homes with our family members.”

“The garba began at my place on August 18, with a young girl from our family (Devanshi Trivedi) taking the from the temple as per the tradition, followed by women and children of the family performing the garba,'' Trivedi said. They posted videos and photos in the WhatsApp group of their society (Coalfield Gujrati Samaj), kickstarting garba celebrations at other homes.

“The chain continued in Jharia, Katras, and Dhanbad where a large number of Gujratis are settled,” Trivedi informed.

A young girl carrying the garba kalash. Gautam Dey

Deepak Udani, another member of the Samaj, said “We are organizing garba at our homes observing social distancing norms. We have a 100-year-old tradition of holding group performances at different places like Satyanarayan Mandir in Jharia, Gujrati School Campus at Shastri Nagar in Bank More, and Garbi Chowk of Bhagat Muhalla of Katras with 500-1000 participating every year.”

“For this year, we have appointed two women coordinators for each of the three places who were leading garba performers and posting photos and videos of the same on WhatsApp groups,” he added.