Navratri ke ‘9’ covers

Nine days of Navratri are celebrated with huge pomp and show all across the nation and is soon becoming a global festival celebrating the divine feminine and the various forms of Goddess Durga.

One of the highlights of this festival in Gujarat is ‘GARBA’. Garba is a dance form known to have originated in Saurashtra and Kutch regions of the state. Traditionally garba was performed in a circle around an?earthen pot with small holes on its walls, with lamp or a picture or idol of Shakti. In modern times, the dance form has evolved and mega gatherings are organized where thousands of people participate. The state comes alive at night, with people dressed in colorful attire heading to various garba venues to swing with the beats.

For the past 2 years the celebration revelry was subdued due to the pandemic. But this year it is bigger and grander than ever.?

When there is a big event, of course there is huge money deployed for organizing the events. Navratri venues usually attract anywhere from 400-500 guests to as big as 10,000 people dancing away to the tunes till wee hours.

These garba events are held in all sorts of formats: by invitation only, privately held events, colony events, association led events & commercial garba where tickets can be bought to enter the performance area. The organizers, across all formats, wish to??have a peaceful & successful event, however they need to be prepared for any mishap.

?As Murphy correctly said "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

?The organizers can prepare for most eventualities and pray for others. Below listed are some of the eventualities that the organizers can be prepared for:

?1.??Theft/ Burglary at event: Garba events are a meeting house of expensive items, from the expensive jewellery adorned by girls to extremely expensive sound and mic systems. Chances are high that there could be theft at the event, and even a single mic being stolen could cause a sizable financial impact.?

2. Fire at the event: The pandals, decor and lighting, stage, music equipment and many such things at a garba venue could get damaged by an unexpected fire at the premises.?

3.??Unprecedented natural disasters near the event venue: Natural disasters like, flood due to cloud burst, or earthquake can cause unpleasant scenes and damages to venue premises and equipment.??????????????

4.????Failure of lead singers to appear for events due to ill health or injury: Celebrity Garba singers like Aishwarya Majmudar, Kirtidan Gadhvi, Parth Oza, Aditya Gadhvi and many more like them are the key attraction of garba venues. If for whatever reasons the main singer is not able to perform at the venue due to a throat infection, or doesn’t turn up at the event for any reason, then the event may turn into a fiasco and organizers can lose the entire ticket proceeds and incur losses.

5.????Injury or death of organizer: Any such untoward incident may hamper the entire event resulting in cancellation and losses of resources already deployed

6.????Accidental injuries at venue: People could trip over?cables, Slip off the stage, get injured due to slippery grounds. There may be incidence of electrocution due to open cables or lack of proper electrification.

7.????Liability to third party for injury: The guest can trigger a liability claim on the organizer in case of an injury caused at the garba venue. This could possibly result in huge compensation damages

8.????Liability to third party for damage to property including guest vehicles: The visitors/ ticket buyers can claim compensation if their property like vehicles get damaged due to some untoward incident at the venue leading to compensation claims

9.????Equipment damage due to rain: Music equipment, stage etc. are set up at cost of lacs of rupees. Due to unseasonal rains, these could get damaged or unusable

Luckily event insurance exists and can provide protection against most of the above-mentioned risks. Few companies which offer this cover are ICICI Lombard, Future Generali, Reliance & New India Assurance.

?On a lighter note: The kind of unseasonal rains happening during Navratri, it seems that Ravan may die from drowning rather than burning.

• Author is Prabhaat Vijh- Director & Principal Officer: iAND Insurance Broker Private Limited