Indian tourists perform garba atop Burj Khalifa, viral video sparks outrage: ‘Stop embarrassing the rest of us'

Indian Express

17-06-2025

From shutting down the entire Wall Street in New York City for a wedding procession to eating with their hands on the London subway, a section of Indians has irked the Internet.
Now, a new video from Burj Khalifa, the UAE, showing a group of tourists performing garba on Chogada has triggered outrage again.
Shared by a Dubai-based content creator that goes by the handle @the_walking_lens_, the now-viral video shows a group of Indians, seemingly Gujaratis, forming a circle and performing garba. The tourists can be seen in yellow T-shirts, hinting at a travel organisation handling their itinerary.
'A viral video shows tourists dancing to the Chodga song on top of the iconic Burj Khalifa,' the caption reads.
Watch here:
A post shared by The Walking Lens 📸| (@the_walking_lens_)
The video quickly went viral, igniting a debate over civic sense among Indians. 'Stop embarrassing the rest of us,' a user wrote. 'Why is this glorified? We must learn to respect the sanctity of public places,' another user commented.
'As a Gujarati, this is embarrassing. I understand you're excited and happy and want to celebrate, but flipping garba anywhere is not. Even gujjus in India don't break into garba at any random place,' a third user reacted.
Last month, a similar incident caught the Internet's attention. A group of 43 Gujarati and Marwadi tourists approached two local artists performing on the street, and requested that they play a garba song on their speakers. The viral video then showed the group performing garba on the streets.
In another incident, an Indian-origin woman was slammed for eating biryani with her hands on a London subway. Last year, a tourist on a Finland train slammed an Indian family for being loud.