By snoadmin
To start India Week, the Indian Students Association served up a plate of culture for students with traditional music and food at the Southwest Terrace Monday.
Ramana Chinnapa, an electrical engineering graduate student and president of the Indian Student Association (ISA), said the purpose of India Week is to generate interest and educate people about Indian culture.
The week’s events will feature Indian movies, food, music, dance and art. Members of ISA will come in traditional clothing and perform a dance Tuesday, and cricket demonstration will take place Wednesday on the Friendship Walk.
Cricket is an important sport in India and the Cricket World Cup will be starting soon. ISA is currently talking with people at The Nugget to broadcast the games.
Noosheen Rajendran, Karlie Friesen and Lindsay Bufkin enjoyed the food and the music. Rajendran is a member of the ISA. Bufkin and Friesen said they’d most likely participate in other events later in the week.
The food offered at Monday’s event included butter chicken curry, mixed vegetable curry, khaman dhokla, paratha and seasoned rice.
According to Siddaharth Zhidmis and Disney Ryait, the music playing was Indian classical music. It featured a sarangi, which is a bow-stringed instrument, and a tabla, a percussion instrument.
Ryait was not impressed by the music.
“It’s depressing,” Ryait said. The music playing at the time was by Zakir Hussain, according to Ryait. He said Hussain was big person in Indian classical music, and compared Hussain to the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Ryait said he prefers Indian pop more than Indian classical music.
The activities of India Week lead up to Holi, also known as the Festival of Colors. Holi happens traditionally around the end of February or beginning of March and will take place Friday at the upper court.
Rajendran said she participated in Holi as an undergraduate student, but would probably not participate this year because of the mess that can occur. According to Rajendran, people throw colored powder and water at each other.
Aman Khatwani, a sophomore and member of the Indian Students Association, said that the colors symbolized good and evil.
