Visually-impaired girls bring song penned by Modi 25 years ago to Garba spirit

Team Udayavani, Oct 13, 2018, 3:56 PM IST

New Delhi: ‘Garba’, the traditional dance from Gujarat, connects the entire world and gives people abundant joy — this is the essence of a song penned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi about 25 years ago.

As various parts of the country celebrate Navratri, a group of visually-impaired girls from Ahmedabad’s Andh Kanya Prakash Gruh institute performed the dance form reflecting the spirit of Modi’s song.

While wishing people on Navratri, the prime minister posted a video of the performance by the girls.

“Touched to see this. The spirit of this Garba has been brought to life by these daughters! Hope everyone’s having a blessed Navratri,” he tweeted along with a link of the video.

The dance, which reflects power of women and presented around an image of Goddess Shakti — is commonly performed during Navratri celebrations and on other special occasions.

Though Garba originated in Gujarat, it has become popular in various parts of the country as well as in countries having sizeable number of Indian diaspora.

“Garba connects the entire world, gives it abundant joy and unites it with the nature. Garba is Gujarat’s wealth and its proud heritage and tradition,” Modi wrote in his song in Gujrati.

He wrote — “Garba is Gujarat’s pride and identity… Garba brings happiness to people across the society — rich and poor, and it is a symbol of welfare.

“Garba is like a flute, Garba is like feather of peacock… Garba is of Gujarat.

Garba is truth… Garba is mother’s beautiful ‘kumkum’ (vermilion)… Garba is power, Garba is devotion,” Modi, who hails from Gujarat, wrote.

The song penned by Modi was reflected in the performance by the girls from Andh Kanya Prakash Gruh – a school which cares for approximately 200 visually- impaired girls.

It offers lodging and boarding and in-house facilities in Braille education up to Class 7. It also offers further studies up to board level and for Bachelor and Masters degrees, girls attend local schools and colleges meant for sighted students.