India Day at Columbia

This Saturday (29th Sep) was an eventful day - my and Shveta's first hand experience with the Indian diaspora here in South Carolina's capital. The India Day event - an event spanning some 3-4 hours starting 6PM Eastern Time - though seemingly overhyped (all the drumming about Indian culture) and overpriced (at $5 per head) for an Indian visiting the US - is an important event for all Indians here. Its an attempt by the local community - to our surprise quite a large one considering about 200 people were there at the Moore Auditorium , the venue of the event - to connect with the Indian culture. Largely, the Indian diaspora constitutes of people of South Indian and Gujarati origin. Therefore, what is largely understood as Indian culture is basically South Indian (and Gujarati) culture. Bhangra, though so ubiquitous there in India, is conspicuous by its absence in such events, atleast in states such as South Carolina.

The venue: Moore School Auditorium, located somewhere near the Airport.

We all left Windsor Shores at about 6PM after a whirlwind shopping spree at the Indian Stores on Two-Notch Road. We all meaning most of the "interested" onshore janta at Columbia - took off in 3 SUVs and 2 Yahoo! Maps on I-77, to the Airport Boulevard and then scouring the place for landmarks and asking people, to the Moore Auditorium. At first, we overlooked the teaming parkway for that of some local sports event and then finally realized that it was actually the desi people flocking in there...Ah well! We were there at last.

On entering, a gentleman in Dhoti started rubber-stamping our hands, as if we were entering a bar and were entitled to some free drinks (sadly, we were not entitled to any eatable and everything was up for sale - like a typical mela in India). The place was teeming with second and third generation Indian americans, some local american Indophiles and curious onlookers - besides us. What I really miss here is pictures of some of the second/third generation PIOs (people of Indian Origin) - wouldn't call them ABCDs since - though they seem confused - are certainly quite proud of their roots..the attire bowled me and Shveta completely. Woow...in the name of ethnicity, I guess people just wear anything. Hello! We are in the 21st century. We have access to the Internet. Why can't we check out how a traditional tamil/telugu/gujarati person should look over the net?

The good part was the enthusiasm. The scale. The knowledge that there are schools in Columbia teaching Bharatnatyam, Garba, Bhangra (rather "two-step" bhangra on the beats of reggae beats and Punjabi MC dhols). The sad part - everyone wanted to be on the stage. No one missed out. The list of programs ran to 32 items. We guys had one of us, Devesh Padmey, participate in the event (turned out it was the best item of all!!! - it was an enactment of Amir and Gracy's role in the Lagaan song - Radha kaise na jale)...the rest were ill-choreographed skits and dance recitals in rather too garish attires for classical dance programs. Some, especially the ones choreographed and staged by one Ms Payal(?) Puri, were very good, but the rest were very mediocre indeed.

Anyways, came to know that a bulk of the diaspora works in places such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, some on H1B, some doctors, etc...in short, true to our image, a very knowledge centric crowd. Great! Really, to think how well we are doing for ourselves across the globe...Just that we have to be serious about organizing very professional events. I heard that some organizations are doing good work in propagating the India image here. Guess smaller states such as South Carolina are largely untouched..

We returned by about 9 PM - some 13-15 miles away to Windsor Shores and then to Forest Drive...crashed on our beds...Viva L'Inde! Jai Hind!!