Gujarati singer Nilesh Parmar plans Garba academy in Canada

News East West

TORONTO: Famous Gujarati Raas-Garba and folk music singer Nilesh Parmar, who was in Canada to enthrall audiences during the just concluded Navratra season, says there is a hunger among the Gujarati diaspora for Raas-Garba in its truest form.

“Someone in the audience told me after my performance at the Hindu Sabha Temple in Brampton that he heard the original folk music after a long, long time. It was such a great compliment for me,’’ said Parmar who comes from Baroda.

The folk singer, who gave five performances solo at various places – Hindu Sabha Temple in Brampton and Sanatan Mandir and Srinathji Haveli in Markham – said he was so enthused by the response from the audiences.

“Canada has a huge Gujarati diaspora and they have not seen true Raas-Garba performances for a long time. Even the younger generation, which is not much into Gujarati folk music, also liked my performances. Encouraged by this, I am planning to start a small music institute here with the thrust on teaching Raas-Garba. We will provide students formal training, just like any music academy,’’ he said.

Parmar, who was here on an invitation from Akhil Shah of the entertainment group Bhagat Limited, said he also planned to bring his whole troupe Parmar Group to popularize Raas-Garba during the next Navratra season in Canada.

“In fact, I would like to see that the celebration of Navratra should have official recognition so that Raas-Garba is promoted among the Gujarati diaspora.’’

The singer said, “The second and third generations of Gujarati are not very much connected with their roots. But once they see how great the traditional Raas-Garba is, they will connect with their roots. I got very good response from young Gujaratis, and I want to connect them with traditions of parents.’’

Parmar, who has also performed many times in Australia, Britain and East Africa (Nairobi), said his maiden visit to Canada has impressed by the Gujarati community’s enthusiasm to keep their folk traditions alive.

Employed with a bank in Baroda, Parmar said Garba is his passion right from his childhood. “I have been doing this folk music for 27 years. I got my music training form Baroda Music College and later my guru-master tabla player Vikram Patel taught me this art. After that I specialized in Garba. I still do practice for three to four hours everyday. Garba is my passion.’’

Not surprisingly, this lean singer from Baroda performed his passion absolutely free for audiences here this time.

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