With a few city-based organisers having decided to discontinue their garbas, these singers have been left in the lurch. The problem, they echo, is the tag that got attached for singing in these garbas over the years. Other organisers are wary of hiring them for the particular `group singer' tag. The result: ground is slipping beneath their feet. Fast.

Says Jignesh who, till last year, sang at the garba organised by a local Gujarati newspaper: ``No other organisers are ready to accommodate us as we are singing for this organisation for quite sometime. We are considered as singers of the `other group'.'' Jignesh, however, does not hold grudge against other organisers, as they also have their selected group of singers.

For many in this `left-out' segment specialisation in only one instrument has dimmed their chances further. Take, for instance, Rajesh Shah, who played tabla for one of the organisers at Karelibaug. ``Why will other organisers they need me? They already have a table player and they don't need another. If I had learnt to play an electronic instrument my chances could perhaps have been better,'' he rues.

The closing down of many city garbas has definitely put a question mark on the career of these artists, for whom a good response at garbas meant a big break bring out their own cassettes. ``The garbas were not just a festival for us. More than that it lent a chance to make an impression in the market. Singers used to get good breaks, in the form of recording their own cassettes, if they succeed at the garbas,'' says Jignesh.

His associate Ramesh Pandya said the time-limit imposed this year by the authorities has annulled the need for alternative singers since one singer can carry on without break. ``Earlier, when garbas carried on till wee hours, singers usually took a break. This meant lesser known singers got an opportunity to break into the limelight,'' he said.

With very little options left for them, the singers now realise the twin options left for them: either shift out of the city for a job or affiliate themselves with lesser known banners. ``Now I will not mind accompanying groups with lesser fame. It is a question of survival and I have to forget about the big banners now,'' says Shah, adding that even moving out of the city is not unthinkable now. This year they have not explored their option on tying up with other groups or going out of the city. But these distraught artistes feel the moment will definitely come next year. For these artistes at least Navratri is not m erely about shaking a leg or two. Its about economics, stupid, as Bill Clinton said in his last election campaign.