Mumbai: While Maharashtra announced a day of state mourning and accorded state honours to pay tribute to Ratan Tata, most of the major garba organisers in the city also observed a day of mourning and cancelled the celebrations on the eighth day of Navratri.
Tata’s demise has shook the nation as it lost a profound industrialist and a visionary philanthropist. While Tata’s home state Maharashtra declared a day of state mourning and announced to cremate him with state honours, his native state Gujarat also observed state mourning cancelling all government celebrations.
However, along with government celebrations which were called off in accordance with the mourning protocols, the masses also joined to mourn the demise of a great personality. Although Navratri celebrations are undergoing in the city, most of the major garba organisers autonomously decided to mute the celebrations as a mark of respect towards Tata.
As the news of Tata’s demise started pouring in on Wednesday before midnight, several garba events were paused midway to observe silence as a mark of tribute. Rangilo Re Navratri organised by renowned singer Parthiv Gohil at Nesco Centre in Goregaon paused the music midway and observed silence after Tata’s death was announced.
On Thursday, as Tata was being given the last respects at NCPA, garba organisers across the city started announcing cancellation of celebration for the eighth day of Navratri. Chirag Poladiya, organiser of Raasleela Navratri at Bombay Presidency Radio Club in Colaba, said, “The first thing we decided in the morning after hearing about the news was to cancel the celebration. It was just a small mark of respect from our side, for the man who deserves a lot more than this.”
Namo Ramo Navratri organised by Shrikant Shinde Foundation in Dombivali also cancelled the raas-garba celebrations on Thursday morning and observed the eighth night of the nine-day festival through aarti. Similarly, multiple other garba celebrations across the city were called-off to join the mourning.
