In the celebration of the Indian holiday of spring and love, the Baker Ballroom stage was met with Indian song, dance, and poem.
The typical image associated with Holi is people throwing colored powder at each other.
However, more than a month after the holiday, the Indian Student Association got to celebrate other aspects of Holi through sharing food, music and culture.
The Baker Ballroom stage was greeted Wednesday by Bollywood dancing, classical Indian music, and a “sweet marathon.”
Holi is the Indian holiday that celebrates love, acceptance and the arrival of spring, and stems from the Hindu legend of the victory over the demon king Hiranyakashyap.
“For me Holi means forgetting the negative things, the bad things in life, and trying to move on and focus on the positive ones,” said Bhakti Shah, a volunteer, graduate student in higher education and Bollywood dancer at the event. “I try to at least make amends with two friends.”
The event followed the group’s Holi Festival of Color celebration on March 21, which involved participants throwing colored powder on each other.
“We, in India, we actually have a purpose for celebrating Holi,” said Sumanth Puligilla, a masters student studying telecommunications and volunteer at the event. “We really enjoy the playing with colors – it’s a lot of fun.”
Due to a fully-booked Baker Center Ballroom, this Wednesday was the soonest date after the actual holiday that the room could be used. Holi took place on March 6 in India.
“We weren’t sure how the event would put out, but it did turn out to be very good,” Shah said. “We got a good response, it went smoothly.”
After a Buzzfeed video of Americans trying Indian sweets for the first time was shown, audience members inexperienced in Indian dessert were asked to come to the stage and try them in a “sweet marathon.”
The sweets included Kaju Katli, made out of various nuts, sugar, and vegetable oil, and Rasgulla, a moist ball made of milk, sugar, vinegar and citric acid.
Performances included classical South Indian singing, a Hindi poem and Bollywood song and dances.
Golshan Madraki, a native of Iran and a doctoral student studying industrial and systems engineering, came to the celebration with her Indian friends, wearing clothes from her home country.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="7468ff4a-c749-11e4-aa4c-87c3c5f5d19b"}}
The performances were followed by a meal consisting of Indian cuisine – including dishes such as Aloo Mutter, potatoes and peas in a tomato sauce, and Veg Biryani, rice with spices and vegetables.
“I really like the culture of India,” Madraki said. “I bought all these clothes from my country – I came from Iran – because I really like Indian culture and they are my friends from India, my close friends.”
However, the message of Holi does not only apply to those who celebrate it — it is an event celebrating diversity and difference of cultures, Madriki said.
“It’s about something between religious and cultural,” she added. “It’s about color, it’s the beginning of spring.”
@seanthomaswolfe
sw399914@ohio.edu
