"Number of abortions rise in Gujarat a couple of months after Navratri" A statement made by Gujarat state's women & child welfare Minister comes in India's leading newspapers during Navratri festival. The entire Gujarat was agog with celebrations all over. Why Gujarat, every part of India celebrated Navratri festival in their own way. Goddess Durga Pooja in West Bengal is their national festival. In Tamilnadu they display Kolu in each home. In Andhra, Karnataka and in Kerala, all nine days and nights are full of cultural celebrations. But in Gujarat it is something special. All the girls come out in the streets to sing and dance. Dance items like Garba, Ras are famous. Girls especially teen age girls and women in their twenties and thirties move around to various dance sites and participate. This goes on for the whole night for 9 nights during Navratri.
Nobody can keep a watch on any girl to know where she is going and what she is doing. Immediately after Navratri, hundreds of teen age abortions are done privately in hospitals. Some husbands and parents even engage private detectives to know whether these girls/women go astray in the name of garba dance. Most of them do go astray, but they enjoy life. They may have sex with boy friends, with bosses, colleagues, servants, or even strangers. Most of them do have sex. Girls & housewives even boast about the number of people they had sex with during the navratri.
Once I happened to be in Mumbai on my way to Delhi and for overnight stay I went to a hotel which was in a Gujarati locality. I just forgot that it was Navratri season and a great surprise was in store for me. I had to catch the early morning flight and hence I went to bed very early so that I may a few winks of sleep. Suddenly at 10 pm I had loud sounds of drum beatings and I sprang in may bed wondering what happened. I came out and saw the preparations for the dance. They were forming groups and singers were getting ready and drummer was just beating the drum to attract attention and to call people to come. Then the song started and the dance also started. It was a wonderful spectacle. I thought let me just watch it because this kind of visuals are rarely available.
Very beautiful young girls, with cheerful faces were dancing with sticks in their hands in a rhythm. I just stood at the gate and watched. I waved at some of the very nice girls and threw flying kisses at them. Two or three girls were thrilled and responded enthusiastically. It was a slow number and it took more than an hour to complete. When it was over new groups were being formed.
Suddenly one of the girls who responded to my flying kiss came running and asked me in Gujarati something which I could not understand. I asked her in Hindi what she wants. She asked whether I stay in this hotel, I said yes, can I come to your room for some water, she asked, certainly, I said and I moved towards my room in the first floor. I was moving fast and the girl was practically running after me. When I reached my room, I opened the door and took the water jug and offered her a filled glass. But she was not there to accept my glass. She was lying in my bed and said she was tired and just wanted to lie down for some time. Me bahoot thuggayi hoom, thoda let javoon.