The evening of Friday, Nov. 10 saw one of the biggest celebrations at Tech with more than 500 people, including staff and students, arriving for a splendid dinner which was followed by a very well organized cultural program. After a tedious week with the sudden onset of winter and the lake effect playing a critical factor with the early snowfall this time, the students, faculty, staff and all other residents of Houghton were invited to perhaps the biggest night of the season: Diwali Night.
The evening began at 5 p.m. with people rushing into the Memorial Union Board making their way through the first snow. The vice-president of the Indian Students Association welcomed everyone warmly. In no time, queues of people lined up to enjoy the delicious food, which as always is known for its large variety as well as exemplary taste. The starters included a couple of vegetarian dishes and the main course followed with a finger-licking dish of chicken curry and a spicy yet mouth-watering dish of paneer which was accompanied by pita bread. The next course included a rice dish and ‘Dal’ which is a thick gravy made from split pulses, originally from the Indian subcontinent often enjoyed with rice. The dessert included ice-cream and ‘Jalebi’ which is a sweet dish popular in South Asia made by deep frying flour batter in circular shapes, later soaked till cooled in sugar syrup and served fresh which gives them a crystallized sugary coating. This dish was definitely the prime attraction in the cuisine section with people coming back for second and third helpings.
After hosting a lavish dinner, the Rozsa Centre for the Performing Arts called held an exciting series of performances including entertaining dances, music and drama. The advisor of the ISA, Dr. K.V.C Rao, welcomed everyone with a beautiful description of the festival of lights and how Diwali signifies the triumph of good over evil. The chief guest Dr. Bonnie Gorman was invited and felicitated by the ISA board members. Bonnie greeted the audience and was all praise about the management of this event by the ISA and the performances began right after. The first performance was a skit named ‘Two Brave Men.’ The characters Babu, a local guy from a small village and Jonathan, were played by Chinmay Patil and Navjeet Goshwami both students at Tech. The skit was supported by Aishwarya Dhawad and Chirag Dave and provided a deep insight into the relationship between the two characters from different places and how destiny causes these two unique strangers help each other. The script was excellent, depicting a subtle contrast between two lifestyles, the prejudices people hold and how emotions know no bounds when people open up their minds and accept life as it is.
This entertaining act was followed by a succession of music performances. This year, the theme of the festival was ‘Unity in Diversity’. With that, all the songs sung were prominent to a particular region in India. The first one was Mai Ni Meriye which depicts the feeling of nostalgia when a child misses its home and wishes to return to its mother. This song is originally in the local dialect of Haryana. Other songs featured during the night included Fateh Ho, Aaigiri Nandini which is a classical Indian song based on traditional hymns. It was played with an electric guitar and drums making it a lively concoction and the crowd’s favorite. The crowd was thoroughly entertained to the fullest with an instrumental masterpiece, with Apoorv Kulkarni on the flute and Vinay Krishna with his fingers twinging sheer magic on the violin. Anmol Deshmukh from the MEEM department sung Khwaja Mere Khwaja, a Sufi song, a soulful melody accompanied by Abhijeet Sukede.
The crowd went wild with a hilarious performance by Dhaval Nagare and his stand-up comedy which provided a lighter mood to the intense night. The program was adorned with some well-rehearsed and coordinated dance performances with Pranav Kalantri as the lead. After these mind-blowing acts, the night was concluded with a soulful composition of Vande Mataram, a patriotic song originally composed by A.R. Rehman, with all the Music teams joining on the stage for their final salute. Talking to Aniket Samel, the president of ISA, “I am thankful to all the members of the food committee for putting in their everything and cooking all these delicious dishes in such a short period of time, to the dance team for their extraordinary performances, to the music team for their melodious contributions and also to all the volunteers, without them and all the members of ISA, this event wouldn’t have been such a huge success. It is always tough to manage everything, but with the guidance of our advisor and the support of the faculty as well as the services of all the community, I am glad to say that this year’s Diwali Night was top notch and we all are looking forward to the Holi Night in Spring 2018.”
With that being said, the biggest festival in the Indian subcontinent was celebrated with overwhelming grandeur and immeasurable success. If anyone missed this event or is interested in participating in the upcoming events contact Aniket Samel at (906)-370-8321.
