WASHINGTON: A well-known Indian-origin doctor was thrown out of a Garba event in Atlanta because his name ‘did not sound Hindu’.
On Friday, Karan Jani, a renowned astrophysicist from Vadodara along with his friends were at Shakti Mandir in Atlanta, the USA but denied entry at a Garba event despite talking to the organisers in Gujarati.
The 29-year-old posted a video of alleged discrimination on Facebook and Twitter. Narrating his ordeal on micro-blogging site Twitter, “Yes, this happened in the year 2018! In the United States! This is one of the biggest Hindu temple and Garba venue in the US. I have been going here for the last 6 years. Shri Atul Purohit performs here… My Konkani friend who came to Garba for the first time due to the enthusiasm of us Gujaratis was pulled out of line & was told: We don’t come to your events, you are not allowed to ours.”
Year 2018 & Shakti Mandir in Atlanta, USA denied me and my friends entry from playing garba because:
“You don’t look Hindu and last name in your IDs don’t sound Hindu”
-THREAD- pic.twitter.com/lLVq4KhJtw
— Dr. Karan Jani (@AstroKPJ) October 13, 2018
Jani further added that the organisers kept ‘stating religions’and were ‘rude’to women in the group. “They ganged up and told us to leave,” he said. “I was told by that organizer, a senior person, things in Gujarati which are so crude & demeaning that it can’t be shared on the public forum. Just to ensure we don’t dare to enter the temple again… Such fuss just for Garba in Navratri – With friends – to celebrate Indian culture,” he said in the post.
In 2016, Jani had made it to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) team in the US.