After bhangra, Poles swing to dandiya

Warsaw -- The Poles, already swaying to Punjabi bhangra and pulsating Bollywood hip-hop, are now swinging to dandiya tunes.

Polish girls dressed in Gujarati-style saris clicked sticks with young Indians and Poles at a dandiya night organised by Shamiana, a South Asian culture group, at the Panska Club over the weekend.

"We never expected the response to be so overwhelming. It is our second attempt here in Warsaw and we are delighted to see the Polish admiration for dandiya, which has fantastic style and grace," Shamiana chief Anna Piekarska told IANS.

"If you add Bollywood pop, it becomes more enchanting and attracts the young," she said of the event that saw people from India, Britain, Pakistan and South Africa dance along with the local Poles.

"Our success in Warsaw has prompted us to set up more branches of Shamiana in other Polish cities like Katowice, Poznan, Krakow, Wrocslaw and Lodz. In the coming months, we will organise dandiya performances to Bollywood numbers in those cities," said Saket Basu, Shamiana's general secretary.

Anil Wadhwa, the Indian ambassador to Poland and chief guest for the cultural evening, said: "I am very happy to know that Shamiana has the true spirit of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries as you have executive members from not only from India but from Pakistani Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh."